Frequency of foreign body granuloma presence in the lung of IV-drug abusers referred to Legal Medicine Organization of Tehran during 2008

Postmortem diagnosis of drug abuse has an important role in determination of the cause of death and factors leading to death in accidents. One of diagnostic procedures is the pathologic examination of the lungs in search for foreign body granuloma. This cross-sectional analysis was performed on cadavers referred to Tehran's Legal Medicine Organization who had risk factors. In cases with positive toxicological tests of urine or bile samples, the pathological examination of the lung tissues was performed. A total of 90 cadavers were examined. The mean age was 33.05 ± 9.45 years (age range: 17-60 years) and 97.8% of the victims were male. Type of drugs used in 53 cases were determined based on the data showing that 40.4% of them were victims of crack, 21.1% heroin, 26.9% opium, 7.7% glass, 3.8% pills and 9.6% abusing all kinds of drugs. 72.2 percent of the victims were single-drug abuser and the remnants were multi-drug abuser. In the pathological study, we found foreign body granuloma in 91.1% of the cases. Age and gender of the victim had no significant correlation with the presence of foreign bodies in lungs. Foreign body granuloma of the lung was found in a high percentage of IV-drug abusers. This method can be used to identify IV-drug abusers as a trusted route.