Smoking--a renal risk factor.

ABSTRACT

Smoking has adverse effects on health, causing ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive lung disease and cancers of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, pancreas, kidney and urinary tract. Smoking causes an acute increase in mean arterial pressure and heart rate. Chronic smoking reduces the renal plasma flow. There is clinical evidence that smoking has adverse effects on renal outcome in essential hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, primary glomerular diseases, systemic diseases involving the kidney and renal allograft recipients.