Watch This: Smoking a
Single Cigarette is Bad for the Heart
May 8,
2006
From: Daniel Stolte, (520)
626-4083
Smoking
just one cigarette may cause abnormal heart function, researchers at The University of Arizona Sarver Heart
Center have found.
Using an
ultrasound technique called echocardiography, a team led by Vincent L. Sorrell, MD, watched as heart
performance went down in study participants within minutes after they had puffed
away.
“We can
actually see what’s going on with
the heart while that person is smoking,” says Sorrell, associate professor of
clinical medicine and radiology at The
University of Arizona College of Medicine. “We can visualize this
because we combine echocardiography with the latest in computer imaging and
statistical analysis.”
For the
study, the researchers divided the volunteers, 27 healthy young adults, in two
groups. One group smoked a regular filter cigarette, while the other chewed a
piece of over-the-counter nicotine gum. The hearts of all participants were
imaged with ultrasound and their function and blood flow measured twice --
before they started smoking or chewing and immediately afterwards.
To avoid
biased judgment, Sorrell’s team analyzed each echocardiogram without knowing
whether it was taken of a smoker or a nicotine gum chewer.
When the
researchers looked at the images of beating hearts in both study groups they
discovered a slight, but notable difference.
“We
noticed that the left ventricle did not fully relax in those who had smoked,”
says Sorrell. “As a result, the heart filled up with less blood than it normally
does.”
“The
effect is very subtle,” says Matthew I.
Gembala, MD, MPH, a statistician and one of the study’s authors.
Gembala is an Internal Medicine resident at the UA College of Medicine and holds
a Master’s degree in Public Health. “Only when we compared the heart function
before and after smoking in the same person did we see the difference.”
Though not
drastic, the effects are statistically significant, proving that even one
cigarette has a measurable impact on the heart.
Sorrell
says the idea for the study came after he had seen patients who were smokers and
presented with shortness of breath.
“When
investigations to determine the cause for their shortness of breath kept coming
out normal, I started to wonder,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘Maybe there is
something going on transiently while they are smoking, and later, at the
doctor’s office, their hearts are back to normal?’”
Sorrell
hypothesizes that smoking has an immediate effect that causes the heart muscle
to stiffen. As a result, the heart is unable to relax completely and fills up
with less blood than normal. The reduced blood flow in turn leads to backup of
blood in the lungs, experienced as shortness of breath.
More
research is needed to determine what substance(s) in cigarette smoke interfere
with heart performance. The researchers did not notice detectable changes in
heart function in the volunteers who had chewed nicotine gum, making it unlikely
that the effect is brought about by nicotine alone.
The
researchers published the results in the peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Cardiology. Sorrell and Gembala
co-authored the publication with
Sorrell
holds the Allan C. Hudson and Helen Lovaas Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular
Imaging at the UA Sarver Heart Center. Having gained international
acclaim for his knowledge and skills in echocardiography, he published the
first Atlas on 3D Echocardiography and won the World Echo Jeopardy Contest,
becoming the World Echo Master Champion 2003. Sorrell has recently been included
in the select group of “Best Doctors in
Reference:
Matthew L. Gembala, MD, MPH,
Contact:
Vincent L. Sorrell, MD, 520-626-2477, vsorrell@email.arizona.edu or
Daniel Stolte, 520- 626-4083 stolte@email.arizona.edu.
# #
#
Susan
Guthrie
Associate Director of Public
Affairs
The
4001 N. Third Suite,
sguthrie@email.arizona.edu
Follow this link to learn more about the
expansion of the UA College of Medicine in
Phoenix.