Long-term smoking results in haemostatic dysfunction in chronic smokers

BACKGROUND: Smoking has been known to cause endothelial dysfunction and bronchial carcinoma and duration of smoking has been implicated in the effects of smoking on regular smokers. This study evaluated the effects of long-term smoking on some coagulation markers in chronic smokers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 78 chronic smokers (age, 41 ± 20 years) where grouped according to duration of time they have smoked (2-6 years, 7-11 years, 12-16 years and 17-21 years), and included in the study. Bleeding time (BT), whole-blood clotting time (WBCT), total platelet count (TPC), prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time with kaolin (APTTK) were estimated in the subjects using standard operative procedures. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Graph pad prism software (Statmate) version 2.0 and SPSS version 20.0 were used for the statistical analysis and the test of significance was calculated using paired Student's t-test. RESULTS: There was an inverse correlation between the durations of smoking and BT, WBCT, PT and APTTK coagulation markers and a linear correlation between the different durations and TPC, in the chronic smokers. The strongest effects was in the 12-16 years and 17-21 years duration (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The study revealed that long-term chronic cigarette-smoking can lead to haemostatic dysfunction in chronic smokers. Smoking should be generally discouraged as it could have far-reaching medical implications on this group of subjects, especially in bleeding emergency cases.