Abstract
Objective: Cigarette smoking is recognized widely as one of the major atherosclerosis risk factors. The present study was conducted to examine whether it is possible to the detect the influence of cigarette smoking on atherosclerosis by noninvasive measurements of the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), which has been accepted as a useful indication of arterial stiffness. Methods: The subjects were 2652 adults who underwent ningen dock in our institute in 2003 and 2004. We recently reported that the measurements of baPWV were influenced by the number of atherosclerosis risk factors including sex. Furthermore, because cigarette smokers are predominantly male, the subjects were restricted to males with no atherosclerosis risk factors, notably hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity, and they were divided into smoking and non-smoking groups. Results: The selected subjects were 518 males (252 smokers and 266 non-smokers). The measurements of baPWV were not significantly different between the two groups. However, the HDL-cholesterol level was significantly lower and HbA1c was significantly higher in the smoking group. Moreover, the measurements of baPWV were significantly higher among the forty-six heavy smokers with a smoking index of over 1000. Conclusions: These results confirmed that it is difficult to detect the influence of cigarette smoking in the early stage of atherosclerosis via measurements of baPWV, even though the influence of cigarette smoking on atherosclerosis may be induced through the metabolism of sugar and lipids. However, there is a possibility that the difference in baPWV may be detectable in heavy smokers, with a smoking index exceeding 1000.
