PULMONARY-HYPERTENSION SECONDARY TO TALCO MA IN A COUPLE OF HEROINE ADDICTS

The authors report a case of severe pulmonary hypertension (PHT) in a couple of HIV seropositive heroine addicts. The parallel clinical cour se in these two patients with only mild immunodeficiency and the fact that they both had the same supplier were in favour of PHT secondary t o talcoma. In the light of these cases, one wonders whether, as sugges ted by certain epidemiological studies currently underway, drug addict ion should be considered to be a cause of PHT in its own right. Accord ing to the authors, this approach would underestimate the incidence of this disease in this particular population and would therefore bias t he epidemiological data.