[Smoking accelerates impairment of pulmonary function at high altitudes].
This work aimed at studying annual impairment of pulmonary function in smokers and in subjects leaving off smoking under conditions of intermittent hypoxia at high altitudes. The prospective 4-year study included 449 smokers aged 38.1 +/- 8.0 yr (97.8% men) and 234 non-smokers aged 38.5 +/- 9.3 yr (65.8% men) employed by a gold-mining company. Subjects of group 1 underwent a decrease of lung vital capacity (LVC) and forced LVC at a rate of 49.5 and 70.7 ml/yr respectively. The forced expiratory volume in the first second decreased by 80 ml/yr. Smokers who left off smoking showed an increase of LVC by 79.8 ml compared with its decrease by 31.6 ml in those who continued to smoke (p < 0.01). It is concluded that smoking under conditions of intermittent hypoxia leads to progressive impairment of pulmonary function; the impairment slows down after leaving off smoking that should be encouraged in every possible way.
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Vinnikov
D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000209:etiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012143:Respiratory Physiological Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000503:physiopathology