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Pulmonary Illness Related to E-Cigarette Use in Illinois and Wisconsin - Final Report
Jennifer E Layden1, Isaac Ghinai1, Ian Pray1
1From the Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield (J.E.L., I.G., L.N., M.T.P., L.S.-H.); the Epidemic Intelligence Service, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (I.G., I.P., A.K., M.W.T., P.P.S.), National Center for Environmental Health (M.L.), the Division of State and Local Readiness, Center for Preparedness and Response (L.N.), the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (B.H., J.G.S., C.A.M.), and the Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (B.A.K.), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Emory University School of Medicine (M.L.) - all in Atlanta; and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (I.P., M.E., J.M.), the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Bureau of Communicable Disease (T.H.), and the Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (J.K.) - all in Madison.
Background:
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid and deliver an aerosolized product to the user. Pulmonary illnesses related to e-cigarette use have been reported, but no large series has been described. In July 2019, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Illinois Department of Public Health received reports of lung injury associated with the use of e-cigarettes (also called vaping) and launched a coordinated public health investigation.
Methods:
We defined case patients as persons who reported use of e-cigarette devices and related products in the 90 days before symptom onset and had pulmonary infiltrates on imaging and whose illnesses were not attributed to other causes. Medical record abstraction and case patient interviews were conducted with the use of standardized tools.
Results:
There were 98 case patients, 79% of whom were male; the median age of the patients was 21 years. The majority of patients presented with respiratory symptoms (97%), gastrointestinal symptoms (77%), and constitutional symptoms (100%). All case patients had bilateral infiltrates on chest imaging. A total of 95% of the patients were hospitalized, 26% underwent intubation and mechanical ventilation, and two deaths were reported. A total of 89% of the patients reported having used tetrahydrocannabinol products in e-cigarette devices, although a wide variety of products and devices was reported. Syndromic surveillance data from Illinois showed that the mean monthly rate of visits related to severe respiratory illness in June through August of 2019 was twice the rate that was observed in the same months in 2018.
Conclusions:
Case patients presented with similar clinical characteristics. Although the definitive substance or substances contributing to injury have not been determined, this initial cluster of illnesses represents an emerging clinical syndrome or syndromes. Additional work is needed to characterize the pathophysiology and to identify the definitive causes.
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