Feasibility Study About Smoking

INTRODUCTION

Tobacco is the only legal drug that kills many of its users when used exactly as intended by manufacturers. WHO has estimated that tobacco use (smoking and smokeless) is currently responsible for the death of about six million people across the world each year with many of these deaths occurring prematurely[1]. Despite of the fact that it is positively associated with many diseases, growing incidence of smoking in young population is still a matter of serious concern for health professionals. There are more than 4000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke [2] , and a cigarette smoker is exposed to a number of harmful substances including nicotine, free radicals, carbon monoxide and other gaseous products [3]. It is widely known that

All were apparently healthy male subjects between the age group of 18-40 years. The study group (smokers) had the history of smoking of one or more cigarette per day, regularly for at least past one year. Institutional Ethical Committee permission and approval obtained .Written informed consent was obtained from all the subjects.

The socio-economic status, age, height, weight and daily activity were comparable between study group and the control group. Subjects suffering from coagulation disorders, diabetes, hyperlipidemia,hypertension or any infection, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal disease, hypertension, any infectious or debilitating illness, and those who are on any medication like aspirin ornon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)were excluded from this study. All subjects were free from other habits like tobacco chewing and alcohol intake. The subjects who were passive smokers, ex smokers and those who underwent radiotherapy were also excluded.Since smoking is extremely rare among women in this area due to cultural reasons, women were not

However,Arslan et al[27] investigated the effects of smoking on MPV in young healthy male population (smokers 56 and non-smokers 46) and they found no significant difference in MPV between the smoking and non-smoking healthy male participant .

The increase of MPV among the smokers in this study may be attributed to platelet activation and the increase of PDW to platelet anisocytosis, which results from pseudopodia formation. Ihara et al as well as Khakendar etal found the same observation in patients with ischemic heart disease[28,29] The mean platelet volume(MPV), Platelet distribution width(PDW) and Platelet large cell ratio (P. LCR) were significantly increased as the intensity of smoking increases as shown in Table 3.This increase of MPV and PDW and P- LCR comparatively suggests that young platelets are released into circulation which are comparatively more reactive[30]. For decades, epidemiological data have demonstratedthe association of smoking with the incidence of coronaryheart disease, myocardial infarction and stroke. In manyof the acute clinical events, thrombotic occlusion of thevessel occurs, a process that is often associated