Comparison of the effect of smoking on cardiac automaticity between pre- and post-menopausal women
Our aim was to compare the effect of smoking on cardiac automaticity between pre- and postmenopausal women by using heart rate variability (HRV) parameters. Thirty three premenopausal (mean age; 32.4 ± 9.2 years) and 29 postmenopausal (mean age; 49.0 ± 6.1 years) smoker women were enrolled. Basic clinical, echocardiographic, Holter parameters and HRV values were compared between the two groups. The high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) power spectrum of HRV and HF/LF were significantly higher (p< 0.05) and standard deviation of the averages of NN intervals in all 5-min segments of the entire recording (SDANN) from the time-domain criteria was significantly lower (p< 0.05) in postmenopausal smokers. Linear logistic regression analysis revealed that smoking duration, oestrogen level and age were significant and independent factors for impaired HRV parameters in postmenopausal smoker women (OR=3.142; 95% CI = 2.78–6.89; p = 0.001; OR=2.394; 95% CI = 1.1–4.9; p = 0.03; OR=1.4; 95% CI = 1.03–2.03; p = 0.04, respectively). Smoking impairs cardiac autonomic function both in pre- and postmenopausal women, while the effect is more prominent in the latter group. Smoking together with aging and decrease in oestrogen levels might be related with a higher degree of cardiac autonomic alterations. Key words: Post-menopausal, women, smoking, cardiac automaticity, heart rate variability. DOI:  10.12973/ejms.2014.127p