Long-term smokers who quit may benefit from almost immediate improvements in blood platelet function, which could potentially reduce their risk of heart attacks or strokes caused by blood clots, according to <<>> in the Feb. 15, 2005 issue of the Journal of the blood clots.
“To the best of our knowledge, we provided the first demonstration that smoking cessation rapidly improved two key measures of platelet function, platelet aggregability and intraplatelet redox imbalance,” said Hisao Ikeda, M.D., Ph.D., at the Kurume University School of Medicine in Kurume, Japan. “Thus, smoking cessation at any time is beneficial, even in chronic smokers; and it is anticipated that the effects will last as long as they don’t smoke.”
The researchers, including lead author Hirohiko Morita, M.D., studied platelet function in 27 men who were long-term smokers. Thirteen of the men resumed smoking after two weeks, while the remaining 14 men abstained from cigarettes for four weeks. In both groups, laboratory tests of platelets, which form the basis of blood clots, showed improved function within two weeks. The improvements disappeared soon after the men resumed smoking.
“Our findings may not only contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological links between smoking cessation and beneficial cardiovascular effects in acute coronary syndromes, but also strengthen the motivation for smokers, especially patients with atherothrombosis, to quit smoking,” Dr. Ikeda said.
Atherothrombosis is clotting in a blood vessel that is narrowed by the build-up of fatty plaque.
Dr. Ikeda noted that this study was done with only a small number of apparently healthy men.
“In the present study, because we studied young healthy subjects, caution is warranted when extrapolating present findings to patients with <<>> or to those with multiple cardiovascular risk factors,” he said.
Stavros Konstantinides, M.D., at the University of Göttingen in Germany, who was not connected with this study, noted that the observation of a significant change in a small group of participants indicates that the effect of quitting smoking is strong.