BACKGROUND: Short-term cigarette smoking in young individuals exerts a significant impact on cardiovascular physiology, evidenced by acute elevations in heart rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic drive. These hemodynamic alterations are accompanied by a transient increase in arterial stiffness, reflecting early vascular dysfunction. Although such changes may be partially reversible in the absence of chronic exposure, they indicate that even limited smoking episodes can initiate vascular injury and accelerate arterial aging, thereby predisposing young individuals to long-term cardiovascular risk. AIM: This study aims to evaluate electrophysiological findings among young individuals who are exposed to cigarettes smoking for a short periods and compared with non- smokers. Increase in arterial stiffness, reflecting early vascular dysfunction, almost all intervals and waves of ECG are significantly shortened but electrophysiological implications have not been investigated. The acute effect of smoking on cardiovascular and electrophysiological parameters before and after exposure in young smokers and young non-smokers are investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Descriptive comparative study over total durations of 24 months. A total 150 young healthy smokers and non -smokers aged in between 25-35 yrs. were taken for the study. Non-invasive parameters were recorded with the help of invasive PC based cardiovascular analyser; Blood pressure and ECG were recorded with the help of sphygmomanometer and 12 leads ECG machine. RESULTS: Statistically significant decrease with almost all waves and intervals of ECG along with total period (R-R interval) were noted in non- smoker group just after smoking, Blood pressure was increased and significant increase with all non- invasive responses such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), arterial stiffness index (ASI) & Ankle brachial index (ABI) in non- smoker group just after smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking, even for a short time, affects the heart and blood vessels in young people. It raises heart rate by increasing the electrophysiological responses and blood pressure and makes the arteries temporarily stiffer. While these effects may go away if smoking is stopped early, repeated smoking can damage the arteries and increase the chance of future heart problems. The present findings demonstrate that even acute smoking exposure in non-smokers as compared to smokers elicits significant electrophysiological and hemodynamic alterations. Key words: Arterial Stiffness Index (ASI), Ankle Brachial Index (ABI), Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), ECG, Smokers & non-smokers.
Kumar et al. (Wed,) studied this question.