Clot, Inflammation Factors Higher in Smokers
(NY, Reuters Health, 6/6/2003)

When Dr. Lydia A. Bazzano of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans and colleagues, analyzed the data for 1700 smokers, nonsmokers and ex-smokers, the researchers found that smokers have the highest levels of C-reactive protein, fibrinogen and homocysteine; while ex smokers have only slightly elevated levels of these markers. Dr. Daniel J. Rader, a heart specialist unaffiliatated with the study, believes that these findings explain why smokers are more likely to have heart attacks and why their risk of heart disease returns to normal within about 2 years of quitting. Dr. Rader concludes that smoking does not cause plaque buildup, but rather elevates the factors that promote the rupture of fatty arterial plaque, which causes clots that can block blood flow and thereby precipitate a heart attack. He says that, if smoking promoted atherosclerosis, the risk of heart attack would persist even after the smoker quit.