Effect of smoking on IMT of healthy volunteers

Background and aim: Smoking is the single most harmful habit that causes direct damage to vascular cell wall. Aim of this Study was to evaluate possible differences between smokers’ common carotid artery (CCA) intima-media thickness (IMT) versus non-smokers’ IMT. Patients and methods: 121 healthy volunteers were investigated. Smoking was the only apparent risk factors for cerebrovascular diseases. IMT measurement was performed on Aloka 5500 Prosound ultrasound platform using B mode investigation on CCA, 1, 5 cm proximal to the carotid bifurcation. IMT was then used for calculation of CCA midwall strain (MS). Mann-Whitney statistics was performed to determine possible difference between groups. Results: There were 80 women and 41 men (aged 47, 43 + 14, 15). There were 23 active smokers (19%), 17 occasional smokers (14%), 11 past smokers (9%) and 70 non-smokers (58%). The group with the highest year average was the group of past smokers. Among the group of active smokers the average number of pack years was 18, 65 (range 4 - 50). In active smokers average IMT was in the right CCA 0, 47 + 0, 08 and in the left CCA 0, 49 + 0, 14, while in the group of non-smokers was in the right CCA 0, 45 + 0, 1 and in the left CCA 0, 47 + 0, 11. In occasional smokers average IMT was in the right CCA 0, 44 + 0, 08 and in the left CCA 0, 45 + 0, 05, while in the group of past smokers was in the right CCA 0, 5 + 0, 1 and in the left CCA 0, 55 + 0, 1. There was no difference in the groups when IMT alone was analyzed. The difference was significant when MS calculations were performed for different groups of smokers versus the group of non-smokers (p < 0, 05). Conclusion: Our analysis proved that there is a more significant association of IMT increase with age than smoking. Also, IMT can be used to express vessel wall function when applied to the midwall strain equation.