Ar. Yataco et Aw. Gardner, Acute reduction in ankle brachial index following smoking in chronic smokers with peripheral arterial occlusive disease, ANGIOLOGY, 50(5), 1999, pp. 355-360
The ankle-brachial systolic pressure index (ABI), a noninvasive measure of
peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) severity, is considered a mark
er of atherosclerosis and an independent predictor of mortality. However, i
t is not known whether factors other than PAOD severity, such as cigarette
smoking, have an effect on ABI measurement. Therefore, the authors examined
the acute effects of cigarette smoking on ABI and the peripheral circulati
on in 10 older (63 +/-10 years) chronic smokers (39 +/-37 pack-years) with
PAOD (ABI=0.64 +/-0.14). The patients were instructed to refrain from smoki
ng and from consuming caffeine-containing beverages for at least 12 hours b
efore the tests. The patients were randomly assigned to 2 days of testing c
onsisting of a nonsmoking and a smoking day. Resting heart rate, blood pres
sure, ABI, and calf blood flow by plethysmography were obtained on both tes
ting days. The smoking day consisted of smoking two filter cigarettes over
a period of 10 minutes before the measurement of ABI and calf blood flow. T
he ABI on the smoking day (0.55 +/-0.11) was lower (p=0.008) than on the no
nsmoking day (0.64 +/-0.14) owing to a lower (p=0.020) ankle systolic blood
pressure (81 +/-28 vs 93 +/-28 mmHg). Brachial systolic blood pressures, h
eart rate, and calf blood flow were not altered by smoking (p>0.05). These
results demonstrate that the acute effect of cigarette smoking lowers the A
BI in chronic smokers with intermittent claudication, thereby yielding evid
ence of a transient deleterious effect of cigarette smoking on the peripher
al circulation in chronic smokers.