Impact of Smoking Status on Biochemical and Haematological Parameters in Non-ST Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes

Abstract

Background: Smoking is a leading preventable cause of mortality and has remarkable negative impact on cardiovascular diseases. Despite many studies focused on impact of smoking on prognosis of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) but no prior studies up to our knowledge focused on how smoking can confound the investigational parameters in ACS. So, this study aimed to assess the impact of smoking on biochemical and haematological parameters in patients with Non-ST-Elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS).

Methods: This is a sub study analysis from a cross-sectional study, which recruited admittedpatients who were diagnosed as acute coronary syndrome, the sub study analysis included only NSTE-ACS patients who were admitted to two teaching hospitals, patients’ data were collected including laboratory parameters.

Results: Ninety-nine patients were recruited, 22.22% were females, 63.63% were smokers. Smokers were younger age group (54.9±11.4 years versus 61.5±11.8 years, p=0.009), more to be males, and less to have IHD (27.77% versus 53.96%, p=0.01) than non-smoker counterparts. Smokers had higher serum potassium level (4.4±0.6 versus 4.1±0.5, p=0.02) as well as higher haemoglobin level (13.9±1.8 versus 13.1±2.2, p=0.04), while non-smokers had higher urea than smokers (45.8±25.4 versus 36.02±12.8, p=0.03).

Conclusion: In the context of NSTE-ACS, smokers were younger, more to be males and diabetic but less to be hypertensive than non-smokers, they had higher haemoglobin and potassium levels. Further studies needed to validate the prognostic significance of laboratory markers in smokers compared to non-smoker counterparts in order to address if smoking status should impact the risk stratification of this group to guide management strategy.