OSMAN Karakaya, MUSTAFA Saglam, ALI METIN Esen, IRFAN Barutcu, IRFAN Barutcu, NIHAL Ozdemır, BENGI Yaymacı, OZLEM Esen, BILAL Boztosun, BILAL Boztosun, CIHANGIR Kaymaz

Keywords: Cigarette smoking, ventricular repolarization, andarrhythmia.

Abstract

Background: Acute cigarette smoking has been reported to increase heart rate and blood pressure as a consequence of sympathetic stimulation. In this study we sought to determine if single dose cigarette smoking influences ventricular repolarization paramaters in habitual smokers. Method and Results: The study population consisted of twenty-four long-term heavy smokers. A 12-lead surface ECG recorded at a paper speed of 50 ms/s was obtained from all participants before and average 15 min. after cigarette smoking. Maximum QT (QTmax), minimum QT (QTmin) intervals, QT dispersion (QTd) and corrected QT dispersion (QTcd) were calculated on each ECG record. QT and RR intervals in V2 leads (QTV2 and RRV2) were also measured before and after smoking. Hart rate and RRV2 significantly increased after smoking a cigarette (67±7 vs. 72±8 beat/min, 984±169ms vs. 875±150ms, respectively p