title: Impairment of Endothelial Function by Little Cigar Secondhand Smoke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little cigars and cigarillos are gaining in popularity as cigarette use wanes, mainly due to relaxed regulatory standards that make them cheaper, easier to buy individually, and available in a variety of flavors not allowed in cigarettes. To address whether they should be regulated as strictly as cigarettes, we investigated whether little cigar secondhand smoke (SHS) decreases vascular endothelial function like that of cigarettes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We exposed rats to SHS from little cigars, cigarettes, or chamber air, for 10 minutes and measured the resulting acute impairment of arterial flow-mediated dilation (FMD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  SHS from both little cigars and cigarettes impaired FMD. Impairment was greater after exposure to little cigar SHS than by cigarette SHS relative to pre-exposure values, although the post-exposure FMD values were not significantly different from each other.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Exposure to little cigar SHS leads to impairment of FMD that is at least equal to that resulting from similar levels of cigarette SHS. Our findings support the need to prevent even brief exposure to little cigar SHS, and support tobacco control policies that regulate little cigars as strictly as cigarettes.
authors.affiliation: Visiting Scholar, University of California, San Francisco, Division of Cardiology, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Jiangtao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Research Specialist, University of California, San Francisco, Cardiovascular Research Institute, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Xiaoyin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Staff Research Associate, University of California, San Francisco, Cardiovascular Research Institute, San Francisco, CA; present address Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Shilpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Narayan
authors.affiliation: Glantz, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, Division of Cardiology, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Stanton A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Glantz
authors.affiliation: Schick, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Francisco, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Suzaynn F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Schick
authors.affiliation: Springer, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, Division of Cardiology, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Matthew L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Springer
keywords: cigarillos; filtered cigars; flow-mediated dilation; little cigars; secondhand smoke; vascular endothelial function