Cardiovascular Autonomic Functions and Its Association with Oxidative Stress Marker in Heavy Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco Users of Low Socioeconomic Status

Background: Tobacco usage is a major preventable cause for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Tobacco is used in both smoking and smokeless forms. Alteration in cardiac autonomic function is amajor predisposing factor for cardiovascular risk. There are only limited studies available which assessedautonomic functional status in smokeless tobacco users. This study was aimed to assess and compare thecardiac autonomic activity and oxidative stress in smoking and smokeless tobacco users with controls.Methods: Sixty seven apparently healthy volunteers from the construction workers of low socioeconomicstatus were recruited. Those who are having habit of using tobacco in any form (n=42) were categorizedinto smoking tobacco group (n = 22) based on the smoking index and fagerstrom score for smokelesstobacco group (n = 20). Those who never used tobacco in any form were included as control group (n= 25).Cardiovascular autonomic function tests were performed and serum malondialdehyde was measured fromvenous blood sample.Conclusion: In this study we found that there is definite alteration in cardiac autonomic function which isin correlation with the level of oxidative stress in heavy tobacco users. This alteration is seen more in heavysmokeless tobacco users in compare with smoking tobacco users.