[C-reactive protein value related to a smoking history and composition of nicotine and tobacco tar].
BACKGROUND
The CRP is known to be an acute phase reactant, but with new high sensitivity assay methods it appears that CRP is also a marker of chronic inflammation. This study was to investigate whether smoking acts as a systemic disease and to see if there is a relation between CRP values and smoking.


METHODS
762 persons were studied, with a mean age of 41.74+/-10.03 years. 200 were smokers, 344 were non-smokers and 218 were ex-smokers. The following details were noted in the smoking history: cigarette brand, number of cigarettes/day, number of years smoking and milligrams of nicotine and tar. In the case of ex-smokers, the number of years since giving up smoking was noted. The CRP was determined using the high sensitive Tina-Quant assay. Windows SPSS version 11.0 software was used.


RESULTS
The CRP values showed statistically significant differences between the smoking and non-smoking groups. A statistically significant increase in CRP was observed in relation to number of cigarettes/day (p=0.001), mg of nicotine (p=0.017), mg of tar (p=0.020) and number of years of smoking (p=0.0001). However, when analysing the relation between CRP and the number of years since giving up smoking, there was a negative curve of 0.02 in the equation, but this was not of statistical significance.


CONCLUSIONS
CRP levels rise when there is an increase in number of cigarettes/day, mg of nicotine and tar and years smoking.
Hospital Central de la Defensa, Madrid, Spain. clara@adsltelecor.com
C E
CE
Martín de Diego
F J
FJ
Gómez de Terreros Sánchez
M C
MC
Caro de Miguel
J
J
Medina Font
C
C
Matesanz Ruiz
J
J
Gómez de Terreros Caro
D000328:Adult; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009538:Nicotine / Q000032:analysis*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013638:Tars / Q000032:analysis*; D014026:Nicotiana
D013638:Tars; C024746:tobacco tar; D009538:Nicotine; D002097:C-Reactive Protein