A Study of Electrocardiographic changes in smokers compared to normal human beings.

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the electrophysiological and hemodynamic al-teration in the heart and circulation. Recording of ECG is one of the easiest methods of as-sessing cardiovascular dysfunction. Hence this study is taken up to detect the electrocardio-graphic changes due to smoking. The study included male subjects above 18 years of age se-lected from the general population of Davanagere. They were divided into two groups, con-trols and smokers. Each group contained 50 subjects. Smokers were selected as per World Health Organization (WHO) 10th revision of International Statistical Classification of Dis-eases and related health problems (ICD-10) criteria of harmful use. After taking consent and a detailed history from subjects, electrocardiogram was recorded during resting supine position. The ECG results are evaluated for different parameters like heart rate, P-wave, P-R interval, QRS complex, QTC interval, axis deviation, ST segment and T-wave. Two groups were compared statistically by student‘t’ test. p value of 0.05 are less (p < 0.05) was consid-ered for statistical significance. There is statistically significant increase in the heart rate and decrease in QRS complex and T-P interval in smokers compared to controls. P-wave, P-R interval, QTC interval, QRS frontal axis, ST segment and T-wave does not show statisti-cally significant results. Our study results showed that smokers are prone for cardiovascular risk. So in earlier stages, abstinence from smoking can revert back the cardiovascular changes to nearly normal or in more severe cases to recovery with little residual damage to the heart.