TMSS Medical College Journal

Background: Cigarette smoking is a common problem in Bangladesh and also a major public health problem associated with morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of cigarette smoking has peaked among the adults. Hemoglobin concentration and Hematocrit both are biomarkers of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular disease risk factor. Objective: The present study has done to find out the cross-sectional association of changes in Hemoglobin concentration and Hematocrit in relation to cigarette smoking and also with different intensity of cigarette smoking. Methods: The study population consisted of 105 male adult non-smokers and smokers, aged 2040 years, of different socio-economic classes. 30 of them were apparently healthy non-smokers, taken as control group for the study, where as the remaining 75 apparently healthy smokers, who are smoking one or more cigarette per day, regularly for at least last one year, considered as the experimental group of this study. Smokers were again divided according to the number of cigarettes they consume per day into three categories. Smoking habit and clinical history & examination performed by pre-tested questionnaire. Unpaired "t" test was performed to find significant statistical difference between non-smokers and different smokers groups. Results: The hemoglobin concentration was significantly higher (p<.01) in smokers than non-smokers, but it did not significantly differ with intensity of smoking. PCV percentage of smokers was significantly (p< .01) higher than non-smokers, but it also did not significantly differ with intensity of smoking. Conclusion: The finding in this study suggests that cigarette smoking does changes the Hemoglobin concentration and Hematocrit which are biomarker of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease risk factor.

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults’ worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths cach year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today — that is about 650 million people — will eventually be killed by tobacco.! The Expert Committee observed that tobacco related diseases are on the rise in developing countries. In 2003, the smoking prevalence in Bangladesh, among adults was 54.8% in males and 16.6% in females. The prevalence of smoking in age group 18-29 yrs, 30-39 yrs, 40-49yrs is 36.3%, 64.2%, and 70.8% respectively.’ Researchers have demonstrated that certain biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk factors (eg, hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC count, WBC count, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), lipoproteins concentrations, heart rate, respiratory symptoms) known to be affected by smoking are relatively stable over time when amount of smoking is maintained at a constant rate but are altered in response to changes in smoking behavior. This suggests that some of these measures are likely to be sensitive to changes in tobacco toxin exposure.* It is well established that an increased Hematocrit increases the risk of CVD and ‘mortality from CVDS. Other investigators have also found that at all ages; Erythrocyte counts of men are higher in non-smokers than in smokers. Smokers have larger Erythrocytes than non-smokers in both sexes and at all ages In both genders, in comparison to never smokers, smokers have higher values of mean corpuscular volume, hematocrit, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, and platelet count.” In a study it was found that low and high levels of Hematocrit are associated with increased mortality in the general population.