Smoking and severity of coronary stenosis

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Smoking is an important cause of cardiovascular disease, its definite mechanism in inducing cardiovascular disease is still unclear, and whether there is linear correlation between the amount of cigarette smoking and cardiovascular risk still needs to be investigated.

A retrospective investigation and comparative study.

The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.

Totally 500 consecutive patients, who underwent coronary angiography for suspected or known coronary atherosclerosis, were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from April 2004 to April 2005. The inclusive criteria included patients with history of chest pain and/or ischemic changes of electrocardiography (ECG), and those with suspected or known coronary artery disease by coronary angiography. Patients with spastic angina pectoris (acetylcholine-positive) were excluded. Patients with infectious processes within 2 weeks before catheterization, heart failure (Killip Class≥ 2 after acute myocardial infarction), hepatic dysfunction, vascular disease (aortitis should be treated with prednisolone), familial hypercholesterolemia, thyroid dysfunction, or adrenal dysfunction were also excluded. There were 370 males aged 42-76years with an average of (61±11) years and 130 females aged 45-75 years with an average of (61±12) years. There were no significant differences in the sex, age and general information among all the patients. This study was approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and informed consent was obtained from each patient.

① According to the smoking habit, 500 patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease were divided into smoking group (n=254) and non-smoking group (n=246). ② All the patients received anthropometric measurements including body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Blood samples were drawn from every patient at admission to the detect the leukocyte counts in peripheral blood, including total leukocyte count, neutrophil count, eosinophil count, lymphocyte count, monocyte count and basophil count. ③ The severity of coronary atherosclerosis was defined by the Gensini score system, based on the hypothesis that the severity of coronary artery disease should be considered as a consequence of the functional significance of the vascular narrowing and the extent of the area perfused by the involved vessel or vessels. In this scoring system, a greater reduction of the lumen diameter was assigned a higher score than a distal lesion. ④The association of smoking amount with Gensini score, anthropometric measurements and leukocyte count were studies with the Spearman correlation analysis.MAIN OUTCOME

① Results of BMI, SBP, DBP, leukocyte count and Gensini score; ② Results of the Spearman correlation analysis on the association of smoking amount with Gensini score, anthropometric measurements and leukocyte count.

① The total leukocyte count, neutrophil count, monocyte count in peripheral blood and Gensini score were significantly higher in the smoking group than in the non-smoking group.② The Spearman correlation analysis indicated that the amount of cigarette smoking was significantly associated with the total cigarettes smoked, total leukocyte count,neutrophil count, monocyte count and Gensini score (r=0.109, 0.100,0.135, 0.139, P ＜ 0.05-0.01).

Smoking is significantly associated with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis, and the inflammatory response may be part of the mechanisms underlying the association between coronary artery disease and cigarette smoking.