TY - JOUR
T1 - Heightened acute circulatory responses to smoking in women
AU - Hering, Dagmara
AU - Somers, Virend K.
AU - Kara, Tomas
AU - Jazdzewski, Krystian
AU - Jurak, Pavel
AU - Kucharska, Wieslawa
AU - Narkiewicz, Krzysztof
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by NIH HL61560 and NIH FIRCA Award R03 TW0 1148. Potential conflict of interest: None.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Objective. Smoking, a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, may be particularly harmful to women. Sympathetic and hemodynamic responses to cigarette smoking may be implicated in the link between smoking and acute cardiovascular events. We tested the hypothesis that acute effects of smoking on cardiovascular function are potentiated in women compared with men. Methods. We examined the effects of cigarette smoking and sham smoking on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure and heart rate in 20 female and 20 male middle-aged healthy habitual smokers. Results. Sham smoking had no effect on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure, or heart rate. Although cigarette smoking increased average systolic blood pressure and heart rate in both females and males, systolic blood pressure increased more in women (12±2 mmHg) than in men (6±2 mmHg; p=0.02), as did heart rate (16±2 beats/min in women vs 9±2 beats/min in men; p=0.002). Female smokers also had greater smoking-related increases in systolic blood pressure variability compared with males (2.2±0.6 vs 0.4±0.4 mmHg, respectively; p=0.01) and greater decreases in RR variability (-28±5 vs -7±4 ms; p=0.002). Despite the potentiated blood pressure increase in females, which would be expected to inhibit sympathetic activity to a greater extent in females than in males, changes in muscle sympathetic nerve activity during smoking were similar in both sexes. Conclusions. Acute pressor and tachycardic effects of smoking are potentiated in women compared with men. These findings may have important implications for understanding increased vulnerability to acute cardiovascular events in women who smoke.
AB - Objective. Smoking, a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, may be particularly harmful to women. Sympathetic and hemodynamic responses to cigarette smoking may be implicated in the link between smoking and acute cardiovascular events. We tested the hypothesis that acute effects of smoking on cardiovascular function are potentiated in women compared with men. Methods. We examined the effects of cigarette smoking and sham smoking on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure and heart rate in 20 female and 20 male middle-aged healthy habitual smokers. Results. Sham smoking had no effect on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure, or heart rate. Although cigarette smoking increased average systolic blood pressure and heart rate in both females and males, systolic blood pressure increased more in women (12±2 mmHg) than in men (6±2 mmHg; p=0.02), as did heart rate (16±2 beats/min in women vs 9±2 beats/min in men; p=0.002). Female smokers also had greater smoking-related increases in systolic blood pressure variability compared with males (2.2±0.6 vs 0.4±0.4 mmHg, respectively; p=0.01) and greater decreases in RR variability (-28±5 vs -7±4 ms; p=0.002). Despite the potentiated blood pressure increase in females, which would be expected to inhibit sympathetic activity to a greater extent in females than in males, changes in muscle sympathetic nerve activity during smoking were similar in both sexes. Conclusions. Acute pressor and tachycardic effects of smoking are potentiated in women compared with men. These findings may have important implications for understanding increased vulnerability to acute cardiovascular events in women who smoke.
KW - Cardiovascular disease
KW - Gender
KW - Heart rate
KW - Smoking
KW - Sympathetic nervous system
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U2 - 10.1080/08037050802185780
DO - 10.1080/08037050802185780
M3 - Article
C2 - 18608198
AN - SCOPUS:48549091932
SN - 0803-7051
VL - 17
SP - 141
EP - 146
JO - Blood Pressure
JF - Blood Pressure
IS - 3
ER -