NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Apr 12 - Not even young, otherwise healthy adults are immune to adverse consequences associated with smoking cigarettes, a research team in Poland reports. Chronic nicotine exposure appears to cause subclinical left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and even after subjects smoked one cigarette, the investigators observed right ventricular relaxation impairment.
There is little information regarding the effects of smoking on cardiac function in young adults, Dr. Barbara Lichodziejewska and associates at Warsaw Medical University note in their paper, published in the April issue of Chest.
Their goal was to use echocardiography to determine multiple measures of left and right ventricular diastolic function, and to see if smoking caused functional impairment among 66 healthy, slender adults, age 20 to 40 years. Thirty-three had smoked 10-25 cigarettes per day for six to 20 years. Among the smoking group, echocardiography was performed after a two-hour nonsmoking period, then repeated immediately after smoking.
Their results showed multiple abnormalities among smokers, including changes in mitral valve flow and pulmonary venous flow, indicating impairment of left ventricular relaxation, Dr. Lichodziejewska and colleagues indicate.
The authors caution that, even though mitral valve flow was significantly lower among smokers, it tended to remain within normal ranges, and that increases following smoking could be caused by heart rate acceleration.
In contrast, "the assessment of pulmonary venous flow, independent of the heart rate and reflecting left atrial pressure, relaxation, and compliance, gave us more precise information," they write.
Thus, parameters of pulmonary venous flow appears to be more sensitive markers for detecting early, subclinical left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, even when mitral valve flow appears to be normal and signs or symptoms of heart disease have yet to appear.
Dr. Lichodziejewska's team also observed that late-phase tricuspid valve inflow was highest immediately after smoking, less after two hours of abstinence, and lowest among nonsmokers, suggesting impairment of right ventricular diastolic function after smoking a cigarette.
These changes are significant, the authors suggest, because "impairment of ventricular relaxation, the early phase of ventricular diastole, is the first stage of diastolic dysfunction."
Last Updated: 2007-04-12 10:35:01 -0400 (Reuters Health)
Chest 2007;131:1142-1148.
Related Reading
Damage to brain region facilitates smoking cessation, January 26, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
