Positive Relationships between Smoking and the Arterial Stiffness Index in Adults without Underlying Diseases

Objective: Smoking is a leading risk factor for various diseases including peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PADis a form of cardiovascular disease that affects the blood vessels, resulting in vascular stiffness and occlusion. The ankle-brachial index (ABI) and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) are non-invasive techniques for detection of vascularocclusion and stiffness, respectively. To determine the association between cigarette smoking and peripheral arterialconditions, the ABI and CAVI of smokers and non-smokers were investigated.Material and Method: One hundred and forty one middle-aged participants without underlying diseases wereenrolled, 49 smokers and 92 non-smokers. A questionnaire was developed to collect the demographic information,medical history, and smoking behaviours of the participants, and their ABI and CAVI were measured.Results: Our results showed that the CAVI values of smokers (7.88±1.26) were significantly differed from those ofnon-smokers (7.17±0.94) at p-value <0.001. In addition, age and cigarette smoking were independent factors significantlyrelated to the CAVI values by a multivariate analysis. Likewise, we found a positive relationship between the CAVIvalues and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (r=0.31) and the length of smoking duration (r=0.42) at p-value<0.001. However, the ABI values between smokers and non-smokers were not different.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that age and smoking were significantly related to CAVI, and a greater number ofcigarettes smoked per day and longer smoking duration had positive relationships to CAVI values.