Abstract 15034: Exposure to Secondhand Smoke is Associated With Increased Left Ventricular Mass
Skipina, TM; Upadhya, B; Soliman, EZ
Published in: Circulation
Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), or passive smoking, has been associated with chronic hypertension. However, little is known about the relationship between SHS and left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, the most common complication of hypertension and a manifestation of cardiac end-organ damage.
SHS exposure is independently associated with LV mass.
This analysis included 4,982 non-smoker participants (age 60.8±13.6 years, 57.8% women, 77.7% whites) from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES-III). Non-smoking was defined by self-report and serum cotinine ≤ 10 ng/dL, a biomarker for tobacco exposure. SHS was defined as serum cotinine level >1 ng/dL. LV mass was estimated using an electrocardiographic model developed and applied in NHANES-III then validated in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the cross-sectional association between SHS exposure (vs. no exposure) with estimated LV mass. In similar models, we also examined the associations of LV mass across quartiles of serum cotinine (reference group, 1
quartile) and in subgroups stratified by race, sex, and hypertension status.
About 9.8% (n=489) of the participants were exposed to SHS. Exposure to SHS was associated with an estimated 2.9 gram increase in LV mass, with a dose-response relationship between higher serum cotinine and LV mass (
). These results were consistent in men and women (interaction p-value= 0.31), whites and non-whites (interaction p-value= 0.21), and those with and without hypertension (interaction p-value= 0.88)
In a racially diverse sample of non-smokers, SHS is associated with increased LV mass with a dose-response relationship between level of exposure and LV mass. These findings underscore the harmful effect of passive smoking on the cardiovascular system and highlight the need for more restrictions on smoking in public areas.