title: Is the Exhaled Breath Temperature Sensitive to Cigarette Smoking?
abstract: The smoking habit is accompanied by an acute inflammatory response which follows tissue injury. It would be desirable to find a non-invasive inflammatory marker that would simplify the task of studying and monitoring smokers more simply and allow us to identify populations at risk of contracting Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Today's expectations regarding research focus on issues ranging from inflammatory markers to those of exhaled breath temperature (EBT) are considerable. That said, although the EBT has been largely studied in asthma and COPD, there have not been any studies thus far that have analysed the effect of cigarette smoking on the EBT.  Bearing this in mind, in this longitudinal study we aim to analyse the EBT in current smokers, monitor the effects both of cigarette smoking on EBT and of what happens after smoking cessation. Twenty-five (25) smokers (59.5 ± 3.1 yrs, 12 M) who participated in a multi-disciplinary smoking cessation programme and 25 healthy never-smokers (58.7 ± 2.9, 13 M) underwent EBT measurement. EBT values were higher in smokers before smoking (T0) than in never-smokers [34.6 (34.2-35) vs 33.2 (32.4-33.7)°C, p < 0.001. The smokers repeated measurement 5 minutes after smoking a cigarette (T1) and 2 hours after (T2). They repeated EBC measurement after 1 week (T3) and then after 3 months (T4) from smoking cessation. EBT is higher in smokers compared to controls. EBT increases after cigarette smoking and progressively decreases with the increase of time from when the last cigarette was smoked.  Thus, we can conclude that EBT is increased in smokers and also sensitive to the acute effect of cigarette smoke.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanna E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Carpagnano
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruggieri
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scioscia
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Maddalena Lo
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Storto
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zoppo
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Respiratory Disease, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia , Italy.
authors.forename: Maria P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Foschino-Barbaro
mesh_terms: D001944:Breath Tests; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D000073865:Cigarette Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D045853:Exhalation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: airways inflammation; cigarette smoking; exhaled breath temperature; non-invasive methods; smoking cessation