PDF
Clinico-Pathologic Conferences | Open Access
A Severe Complication of Crack Cocaine Use
Gokul Vidyasankar
,1 Carolina Souza,2 Chi Lai,3 and Sunita Mulpuru11Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
3Department of Anatomic Pathology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
The present report describes a 48-year-old woman with a history of recurrent ‘crack’ cocaine use, who developed progressive shortness of breath over a period of years. Serial imaging revealed progressive interstitial fibrosis secondary to recurrent alveolar hemorrhage and inflammation from crack cocaine. The present case serves as a reminder of the numerous sequelae of crack cocaine use, highlighting one particularly severe outcome.
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
