2020 Volume 35 Issue 4 Pages 578-585
Objective: Here, we continue to report the relationship between various factors associated with lifestyle-related disease and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), which is a stiffness index of large arteries. Although smoking is a risk factor for arteriosclerosis, there are few longitudinal analysis reports related to the effects of smoking on baPWV.
Methods: Overall, 419 men and 38 women who smoked continuously for 10 years (smoking group) and those who did not smoke continuously (nonsmoking group) were selected from among 7,251 men and 2,707 women who underwent health checkups and for whom baPWV was measured at our facility.
As very few female smokers could be included and to exclude those who quit and re-started smoking in the course of 10 years and also exclude the effect of blood pressure that greatly affected baPWV, 274 men, i.e., 181 nonsmokers and 93 smokers, who had never been on antihypertensive drugs were included in this analysis.
Results: Among age, BMI, blood pressure, and various lifestyle-related disease factors, HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels were significantly different between the first year and tenth year in both groups. The increase in baPWV during the 10-year period was significantly greater in the smoking group (200 cm/sec) than in the nonsmoking group (128 cm/sec). In addition, among the analyzed subjects who had all measurement results, in the first year, after 3 years, after 5 years, after 7 years, and after 10 years, the change in baPWV was significantly greater in the smoking group from after 3 years and above.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest for the first time that the effects of smoking on the progression of the stiffness of large arteries can be detected by changes over years in baPWV.
