EFFECT OF SMOKING ON CUTANEOUS MICROCIRCULATION

Abstract

Regarding the hazardous effects exerted by smoking on general health and cardiovascular system especially the micro­ circulation which is more liable for smoking hazards, this withdrawn the attention of many of the clinical investigators in the field of public health for directing more consistent medical and researching efforts towards that fact , inorder to provide more tools in counseling smokers for the smoking hazards on microcirculation helping them to quite smoking.

This study included thirty adult, healthy, Egyptian males. Half of them were habitual smokers , the other half were nonsmokers serving as the control group. Our aim was to study the effect of smoking on the cutaneous microcirculation by the aid of laser­ Doppler fluximetry (LDF) using the thermal-stimulation technique.

The comparative study for the results between both groups regarding the laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF) recorded data revealed significant differences appeared in the form of higher minimum , lower maximum , mean and percent change values of the flux in smokers (group-2) compared to the nonsmokers (group-1).

Also comparison of the other results showed elevated serum levels of tri-glycerides (TG) , fasting blood sugar (FBS) , in addition to increased vascular intima media-thickness (IMT) in the smokers group.