The effect of smoking cigarettes on the peripheral blood flow in subjects in the older age group with coronary arteriosclerosis and hypertension

Abstract

The effect of smoking standard cigarettes on the peripheral blood flow was studied by means of a method with which the average amount of blood allotted to the periphery can be measured in cubic centimeters per square meter of body surface per minute. The peripheral blood flow was measured in seventeen patients who exhibited evidences of hypertension and coronary arteriosclerosis and who were in the older age group ranging from 38 to 81 years of age. Effects on the basal metabolic rate, blood pressure, and pulse rate were also recorded. Studies were made before, during, and after the smoking of one brand of regular commercial cigarettes. All observations were made with patients in a basal metabolic state at a room temperature of 27° C. and 45 to 50 per cent humidity. 1. 1. As a result of smoking, the peripheral blood flow decreased in thirteen subjects and increased in four subjects. In the four showing increases, the peripheral blood flow decreased for single observations either during or after smoking but not sufficiently to counterbalance the average trend of increase in peripheral blood flow for the whole period of the observations. After cessation of smoking the peripheral blood flow continued to decrease in some and began to return toward the control levels in others. 2. 2. The blood pressure rose and the pulse rate increased in the group in which smoking decreased the peripheral blood flow, but it was essentially unchanged in the group in which smoking increased the peripheral blood flow. 3. 3. The rectal temperature rose as a result of smoking. 4. 4. The average skin temperature decreased as a result of smoking. 5. 5. These changes resulting from smoking are similar to those occurring in normal subjects. 6. 6. The changes in peripheral blood flow, blood pressure, heart rate, rectal temperature, and average skin temperature (especially the temperature of the hands and feet) were, however, less marked in these patients in the later decades of life than in normal young subjects.