ACETONITRILE AS A POSSIBLE MARKER OF CURRENT CIGARETTE-SMOKING

Volatile nitriles are present in cigarette smoke. We tested the hypoth esis that the presence of any of four nitriles in the blood can serve as a marker of recent cigarette smoking. We determined the sensitivity and specificity of these nitriles as indicators of daily cigarette sm oking in 24 smokers (Group A) and 18 non-smokers (Group B), as well as the correlation between intensity of daily smoking and the blood conc entration of acetonitrile. A new head space GLC assay method was used. Of the four nitriles, only acetonitrile was present in the blood of a ny study subject. Acetonitrile was moderately sensitive (67%) and enti rely specific (100%) for self-reported daily smoking. There was fair c orrelation between blood acetonitrile concentration and the average da ily number of cigarettes smoked (r(2)=0.39; P=0.001), and the mean blo od acetonitrile concentration was significantly higher (P=0.03) among subjects with higher (>10 cigarettes per day) current cigarette exposu re (148.3 +/- 18.0 mu g/l) than among smokers with low or minimal (1-1 0 cigarettes per day) exposure (43.3 +/- 6.0 mu g/l). Thus, acetonitri le in blood appears to be highly specific and a moderately sensitive m arker of cigarette smoking with a dose-effect relationship. As such, a cetonitrile shows promise as a marker of current cigarette exposure.