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It is intuitive that cocaine abuse via the respiratory tract (smoking or snorting) would exacerbate reactive airway disease in predisposed patients. These investigators sought to determine the incidence of cocaine abuse among adult asthmatics at an inner-city ED and to correlate abuse with asthma severity.
During a 7-month period, 163 patients were asked to participate in the study, which included self-reporting for use of heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, and alcohol; 116 patients consented and 103 submitted urine specimens for drug screening. Thirteen patients tested positive for cocaine and 6 for opiates (3 were positive for both). Only 3 patients had admitted to cocaine use. Patients who tested positive for cocaine were significantly more l…