Overdose Detection Technologies to Reduce Solitary Overdose Deaths: A Literature Review

Drug overdoses were a leading cause of injury and death in the United States in 2021. Solitary drug use and solitary overdose deaths have remained persistent challenges warranting additional attention throughout the overdose epidemic. The goal of this narrative review is to describe recent global innovations in overdose detection technologies (ODT) enabling rapid responses to overdose events, especially for people who use drugs alone. We found that only a small number of technologies designed to assist in overdose detection and response are currently commercially available, though several are in the early stages of development. Research, development, and scale-up of practical, cost-effective ODTs remains a public health imperative. Equipping places where people live, learn, work, worship, and play with the necessary tools to detect and prevent overdose deaths could complement ongoing overdose prevention efforts.

Benign nodular calcification and calciphylaxis in a haemodialysed patient

Several types of soft tissue calcification can be detected from radiographic evaluation of patients with end-stage renal failure. The factors that predispose to such calcification include an increase in CaxP product in serum, the degree of secondary hyperparathyroidism, the level of blood magnesium, the degree of alkalosis, and the presence of local tissue injury. Three major varieties include calcification of medium-sized arteries, periarticular or tumoral calcification and visceral calcification. Calciphylaxis is a phenomenon consisting of acute ischemic necrosis in presence of calcification of dermohypodermic arterioles. It occurs mostly in chronic renal failure patients with secondary or tertiary hyperparathyroidism with a persistently elevated calcium-phosphorus product. There are few options in treating calciphylaxis and the outcome is generally poor. The authors report the case of a haemodialised patient with benign nodular calcification and calciphylaxis. The coexistence of both entities in the same patient has never been described.