Effect of cigarette smoking on the gastric mucosal blood volume index and hemoglobin oxygenation in man

The acute effect of cigarette smoking on the gastric mucosal blood volume index and the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (SO₂) in the gastric mucosa was investigated in 12 young male volunteers using reflectance spectrophotometry during endoscopy. Six of these volunteers were habitual smokers who had smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day for more than five years. The others were non-habitual smokers who smoked less than 20 cigarettes a year. The indices of mucosal blood volume and the mucosal blood SO₂ level were calculated from the spectra obtained at the lesser curvature of the lower corpus of the stomach before and after cigarette smoking. The indices of mucosal blood volume and mucosal blood SO₂ decreased significantly after one to three puffs of cigarette smoking in all subjects as compared to the value before smoking, and the degree of decrease in these parameters was significantly greater in the non-habitual smokers than in the habitual smokers. These results suggest that only one to three puffs of cigarette smoking causes a decrease in the mucosal blood volume and the mucosal blood SO₂ which might be related to weakening of mucosal defensive factors. This work was supported by a grant from the Japan Tobacco Corporation.