[Vascular complications in drug addicts. Intermittent claudication in a HIV seropositive heroin addict]

The widespread use of heroin has revealed the growing life-threatening complications consequent on drug practice. The effects of heroin on the cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal and central nervous system have been well described in medical literature, but the vascular complication of chronic occlusive arterial disease of the lower limbs is rare. We report a case of a young female patient who was a chronic drug addict for over five years, with concomitant serum positiveness for HIV infection. The etiologic and pathogenetic mechanisms of such an uncommon vascular complication are discussed on the basis of the existing literature.