Effects of cigarette smoking on short‐term variability of blood pressure in smoking and non smoking healthy volunteers

Abstract

The present trial was planned to study the effects of smoking on short-term variability of blood pressure and on haemodynamic parameters after an overnight cessation and after one day of repeated smoking in healthy cigarette smoking volunteers, compared to a control group of non-smokers who were not asked to smoke. 40 healthy male volunteers, 20 smokers and 20 non-smokers, participated in an open study with two period of measurements over a single day (morning and afternoon). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured using standard and finger recordings over 6 min before and 10 min after smoking one cigarette (in smokers only). During the two periods, smokers were asked to smoke 4 cm of a cigarette containing 1 mg of nicotine in 2 min, and a blood sample was taken for a plasma nicotine assay. In the smoking group, smoking the first cigarette of the day caused a significant increase of systolic blood pressure (+7%), diastolic blood pressure (+10%) and heart rate (+25%). The blood pressure variability in the frequency range of the Mayer waves (66-129 mHz) was increased after an overnight cessation of smoking in the smoking group in comparison to the non-smokers, and decreased significantly after the first cigarette of the day (7.1 +/- 4.0 to 3.2 +/- 1.8 mmHg2; P < 0.01). The changes observed in the afternoon after continuous smoking were significantly less important (3.8 +/- 1.9 to 3.2 +/- 1.9 mmHg2; NS). In the non-smoking group, the different parameters remained stable between the different measurements. These results suggest that an overnight cessation of smoking in smoking subjects is associated with a increase in sympathetic activity to the vascular system in the morning, which is released by smoking the first cigarette. This effect of smoking is reduced in the afternoon after a continuous nicotinic impregnation.