These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Thymus alterations related to intravenous drug abuse.
    Author: Glavina-Durdov M, Definis-Gojanovic M.
    Journal: Am J Forensic Med Pathol; 1999 Jun; 20(2):150-3. PubMed ID: 10414655.
    Abstract:
    It has been noticed on forensic material that Hassall's corpuscles of the thymus are more often calcified in intravenous drug abusers than in healthy persons. Thymuses of 15 intravenous heroin addicts were histologically examined and compared with thymuses of 15 healthy persons. Acute bleeding and dystrophic calcification in the thymocyte's parenchyma were more common among intravenous drug abusers (p = .005 and p = .001, respectively). The degree of physiologic involution measured by fatty replacement and the clarity of border between cortex and medulla was equal. No significant diversity was found in the features of Hassall's bodies. Our study emphasizes the necessity for a defined criteria of morphologic changes in the thymus that could be expected in intravenous drug abusers. In that way it would be possible to complete the forensic findings as well as to examine immunologic system alterations of that risk population.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]