Differences in Myocardial Strain at End-Inspiration versus End-Expiration with Remote Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke

Prolonged exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) is associated with abnormal pulmonary function and cardiovascular response. In this study, we examined cardiac function in SHS-exposed participants using cardiac MR (CMR) and displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) to determine whether the cardiac function is affected by air trapping-a hallmark of heavy past SHS exposure. We found that SHS-exposed participants had lower myocardial radial strain than unexposed participants at both end-inspiration and end-expiration imaging. Neither stroke volume nor cardiac output exhibited the decrease seen in unexposed participants at end-inspiration, but radial strain was significantly lower compared to end-expiration in SHS-exposed participants.