THE ACUTE EFFECT OF SMOKING ON CUTANEOUS MICROCIRCULATION BLOOD-FLOW IN HABITUAL SMOKERS AND NONSMOKERS

Background: Smoking is known to be a primary cause of chronic harmful effects on the vascular system, It also induces some acute effects on the coronary circulation and on the ophthalmic artery. Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the effect of smoking a single cigarett e on cutaneous blood flow in habitual smokers as well as in nonsmokers . Methods: A laser Doppler flowmeter was used to perform measurements of cutaneous microcirculation. Flowmetric data were recorded (i) befor e smoking, (ii) inhaling from an unlighted cigarette, (iii) during cig arette smoking, (iv) 2 and (v) 5 min after smoking. Results: We could show that smoking a single cigarette acts on the cutaneous microcircul ation reducing blood flow in both groups of subjects (38.1% reduction in smokers and 28.1% reduction in nonsmokers; p<0.01). Interestingly, the recovery phase is faster in nonsmoker subjects than in smoker ones ; in fact, the recovery is complete 2 and 5 min after cigarette smokin g in nonsmokers and in smokers, respectively. Conclusion: Smoking a si ngle cigarette decreases the cutaneous blood flow in habitual smoker a s well as in nonsmoker subjects, Moreover, the slower recovery phase o f smokers suggests that their microcirculation become inured to smoke.