Acute effects of cigarette smoking on pattern electroretinogram.

In this study, acute effects of cigarette smoking on the pattern electroretinogram (PERG) were investigated. First, variability of the PERG was studied in a group of young male smokers (26 right eyes of 26 subjects). Then PERGs were investigated in a group of habitual smokers (17 right eyes of 17 subjects) in separate real smoking and sham smoking sessions. On each session PERGs were recorded pre-smoking (PS), immediately after smoking (IAS) and 5 min after smoking (5th) conditions. Real smoking significantly increased P50 amplitudes and decreased N95 latencies. Regarding P50 amplitudes in the real smoking sessions, the differences were significant between PS and IAS (PS: 3.3 +/- 0.5 muV, IAS: 3.7 +/- 0.7microV, P = 0.015) and between PS-5th (PS: 3.3 +/- 0.5microV, 5th: 4.1 +/- 0.9microV, P = 0.039). There was significant difference (P = 0.024) between N95 latencies of PS (98.5 +/- 6.9 ms) and IAS (94.7 +/- 5.1 ms) in the real smoking sessions. No statistically significant difference was observed in sham smoking sessions. Our results indicated, for the first time, that cigarette smoking may influence PERG amplitude and latency significantly in habitual smokers.