An update of the factors showing cigarette smoking as an etiologic factors of the ischemic heart disease

Carbon monoxide and nicotine are the main compounds of smoking able to harm cardiovascular system. Carbon monoxide acts chronically causing, in the time, myocardial and coronary vessel lesions, which after continuous and prolonged exposure, become irreversible alterations. On the contrary, nicotine causes primarily a functional and reversible damage to the heart and coronary vessels in both active smokers and individuals passively exposed to tobacco smoking.11,12 However, an irreversible harm is the final result of nicotine effects. Therefore, evidence indicates that both these chemicals determine either acute or chronic type of damage to cardiovascular system. The observations briefly reported permit to identify that some factors due to smoking exposure play a strong role in determining both myocardial and coronary vessel alterations, which are clearly associated with the development of ischemic heart disease.