Cigarette smoking and health of the heart.

A large series of studies relate cigarette smoking to the development of cardiovascular damage. Both active and passive smoking seem to act negatively on the heart, although with different results. Active smoking impairs the cardiovascular system chronically causing mainly coronary atherosclerosis, whereas passive smoking impairs cardiac performance transiently after acute exposure, and to a greater extent in those with established ischaemic heart disease. Evidence indicates that the heart is a target organ for cigarette smoking (Leone, 1992). Diseases of the heart and blood vessels account for over one-third of all the excess deaths in smokers (follow-up report of the Royal College of Physicians, 1983). The purpose of this report is to demonstrate some of the links between cardiovascular damage and smoking by reviewing our previous findings based on an Italian population.