Smoking Cessation Normalizes Coronary Endothelial Vasomotor Response Assessed with 15O-Water and PET in Healthy Young Smokers

Cigarette smoking is one of the risk factors of cardiovascular dis-eases and is related to abnormal peripheral and coronary vascu-lar vasomotion. Coronary vascular endothelial dysfunction is caused by chronic smoking in smokers without epicardial coro-nary artery stenosis. The coronary endothelial vasomotion ab-normality is restored by interventions such as L-arginine or vitamin C infusion. However, to our knowledge, the effect of smoking cessation on coronary vasomotor response has not been elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of smoking cessation on coronary vasomotor response by quantitative myocardial blood flow (MBF) measurement using 15O-water and PET. Methods: Fifteen young smokers (Brinkman index. 100; mean age6 SD, 266 4 y) with no evidence of heart disease or cardiovascular risk factors, except for smoking, and age-matched nonsmokers (n 5 12) were enrolled in this study