The effects of cigarette smoking on intraocular pressure and arterial blood pressure of normotensive young Nigerian male adults

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the effects of cigarette smoking on intra ocular pressure and arterial blood pressure of normotensive young male adults. Fifty male students (who met the screening conditions and devoid of obvious ocular pathology and systemic diseases and non-smokers) had their intra ocular pressure (IOP) measured with a Schiotz tonometer and blood pressure(BP) measured with standard sphygmomanometer respectively prior to smoking of two sticks of cigarette each day for one month and thereafter. The result showed a significant [P < 0.01] effect on the intra ocular pressure with a mean control of 37.76 +/- 0.98 for both eyes and test of 41.93 +/-0.98. Cigarette smoking increased the blood pressure from mean control of 197.24 +/-0.88 to 208.46 +/-0.82. The increase of both intra ocular pressure and arterial blood pressure was due to nicotine, the principal constituent of cigarette. It is recommended that health care workers should check regularly the IOP and BP of their cigarette smoking patients for early diagnoses of ocular hypertension (glaucoma) and hypertension.