Smoker’s Polycythemia: Is It a Cardiovascular Risk?

Abstract

Increase red blood cell mass and decrease plasma volume can elevate blood viscosity, which can impair blood flow, making individuals susceptible to vaso-occlusive events. Smoking that results in secondary polycythemia and erythrocytosis can cause additional harms in smokers. It can be defined by an expansion of red cell mass with elevated haemoglobin and hematocrit as a physiologic response to increased erythropoietin production secondary to generalized tissue hypoxia. Hypoxia in smoker’s polycythemia is present with normal or falsely elevated oxygen saturation value. This article stressing the importance of being aware of cardiovascular risk in patients with polycythemia as a result of chronic smoking exposure. *Correspondence: Abeer Mohamed Shawky, Cardiology Department, Faculty of medicine, Al-Azhar university, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: abeer_ shawky@hotmail.com. Received: 02 October 2020; Accepted: 30 October 2020