Smoking and Impaired Endothelium-Dependent Dilatation

To the Editor: Celermajer et al. (Jan. 18 issue)1 reported that passive smoking is associated with a dose-related impairment of flow-mediated, endothelium-dependent arterial dilatation in healthy young subjects. Previous studies have shown that active cigarette smoking induces a reduction of flow-mediated arterial dilatation that is partially reversible on smoking cessation.2 However, it is not known whether the endothelial dysfunction induced by smoking is the consequence of chronic damage to the endothelium or whether some components of cigarette smoke acutely affect endothelial function. We assessed the short-term effects of cigarette smoking on flow-mediated arterial dilatation in healthy young adults who were . . .