In the Hokkaido University study, researchers examined the effects of smoking cessation on coronary endothelial dysfunction in 15 young male adults (in their twenties and thirties) with no other heart diseases or cardiovascular risk factors (other than smoking). The young smokers, who smoked an average of 20 cigarettes a day, agreed to stop for at least six months. Myocardial (heart) blood flow was measured both at rest and during stimulation induced by a cold pressor test by using PET with the oxygen tracer called 15O-water. Additional research is necessary, said Tamaki. “We would like to compare the current information with data from middle-aged smokers to see whether such response after smoking cessation may be seen in an older generation. Also, it would be nice to see the reversibility in young smokers associated with other risk factors, such as diabetes and obesity,” he said.

“Smoking Cessation Normalizes Coronary Endothelial Vasomotor Response Assessed With 15O-Water and PET in Healthy Young Smokers” appears in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, which is published by SNM, the largest molecular imaging and nuclear medicine association. Other co-authors at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, are Koichi Morita and Tohru Shiga, both with the nuclear medicine department at the Graduate School of Medicine; Takahiro Tsukamoto, Masanao Naya, Kazuyuki Noriyasu and Hiroyuki Tsutsui, all with the cardiovascular medicine department at the Graduate School of Medicine; Masayuki Inubushi and Yuji Kuge, both with molecular imaging department at the Graduate School of Medicine; and Chietsugu Katoh, the health sciences department.



Additional information can be found online at http://www.snm.org.

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