Abstract
Cigarette smoking affects all phases of atherosclerosis from endothelial dysfunction to acute occlusive clinical events. The problem is, whether the length of the period of cigarette smoking has a more reflection to the status of lipids and illnesses of cardiovascular system or the bigger number of smoked cigarettes in a shorter time-period? The observed sample has constituted of two groups of smokers, both gender, age 25-64 years old. The first group consisted of 210 examinees divided in 7 subgroups according to a number of years they have been smoking. The second group consisted of 150 examinees, which was divided in 5 subgroups, according to average number of cigarettes smoked daily. The average values of serum cholesterol (6.98 vs. 6.13 mmol/L), triglycerides (3.15 vs. 3.13 mmol/L) and LDL-cholesterol (3.80 vs. 3.64 mmol/L) were always higher in a group of smokers according to a number of daily smoked cigarettes. Average value of smoking consumption period was higher in a group of smokers according to the length of smoking consumption period than in a group of smokers according to a number of cigarettes smoked daily (20.34 y vs. 13.55 y.). Hypertension (72% vs. 30.9%), angina pectoris (44.6% vs. 20.4%), CHD (30.6% vs. 22.8%) and myocardial infarction (16% vs. 11.4%) appeared much more in the group of smokers according to a number of cigarettes smoked daily. More reflection to the status of lipids and illnesses of cardiovascular system has the bigger number of smoked cigarettes daily than the length of the period of cigarette smoking.