Is fibrinogen a reliable haemostatic marker for monitoring possible risks of thromboembolic events in smokers?

With the increasing incidence of smoking in Mauritius, the present work was designed to investigate the potential effects of smoking on blood coagulation parameters. The present study is based on data collected from 118 male participants that consisted of 100 smokers and 18 non-smokers. Blood coagulation parameters included measurements of fibrinogen level, activity of cofactor VIII and prothrombic activity by using commercially available colorimetric kits. Analysis of variance showed that fibrinogen levels in smokers were significantly higher than in the non-smokers (P<0.05). However there were no statistically significant differences for the other haematological parameters measured for both the control and smokers (P>0.05). We thus concluded that fibrinogen could be a reliable marker for monitoring risks of thromboembolic events in smokers.Keywords : Haematology, smoking, fibrinogen, thromboembolic events