High rates of serum selenium deficiency among HIV- and HCV-infected and uninfected drug users in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of low serum Se and determine whether HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and/or the types of drugs used are associated with serum Se in a cohort of infected and uninfected drug users.

Design: Independent correlates of low serum Se levels based on data collected from food recalls, physical examinations and clinical questionnaires were identified using multivariate regression analysis.

Setting: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Subjects: A total of 205 (twenty-five female and 180 male) former and current drug users.

Multiple infections and associated risk factors among non-injecting cocaine users in Argentina.

The aim of this study was to estimate the seroprevalence rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV, core antibody), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis infections and analyze associated risk factors among 504 non-injecting cocaine users (NICU) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Participants were interviewed in face-to-face sessions through a short structured questionnaire. Using venipuncture, 10 mL of blood was collected.

[Echocardiographic detection of heart valvular disease in cocaine addict patients].

Intravenous drug-addiction is one of the susceptible factors for the development of infectious endocarditis and cocaine, especially when administered intravenously, can produce damage at the level of the valvular endothelium. We have studied a group of cocaine addicts to evaluate the possible existence of valvular alterations. Ninety-eight patients, addicts to intravenous injection and/or nasal insufflation, have been studied with Doppler and echocardiography and they were compared with a non-addict group of fifty persons.