A Swedish study shows that a brief exposure to e-cigarette aerosol containing nicotine acutely increases thrombus formation and possibly reduces endothelium-independent microvascular reactivity.
“Vaping is increasingly popular, despite growing evidence of adverse health effects,” Gustaf Lyytinnen (Karolinska Institute/Stockholm) and his co-authors wrote in their scientific paper which was published in Cardiovascular Toxicology.
To further evaluate the impact of e-cigarette use on vascular health, they investigated the effects of brief e-cigarette inhalation on flow-dependent thrombus formation and microcirculation in healthy volunteers. The study was performed with a randomised double-blind crossover design. Twenty-two healthy subjects aged between 18 and 45 years with occasional tobacco use were recruited. Subjects inhaled 30 puffs of e-cigarette aerosol with and without nicotine on two occasions separated by a wash-out period of at least 1 week. Blood samples were collected at baseline and at 15 and 60 min following exposure and analysed with the Total-Thrombus-formation analysis system evaluating fibrin-rich thrombus formation and platelet thrombus formation in whole blood under flow. Compared with nicotine free e-cigarette aerosol, exposure to e-cigarette aerosol with nicotine significantly increased platelet thrombus formation and fibrin-rich thrombus formation at 15 min (p = 0.017 and p = 0.037, respectively) with normalisation after 60 min. Thirty puffs of e-cigarette aerosol with nicotine increased platelet and fibrin-dependent thrombus formation and reduced microvascular dilatation capacity. No compelling effects of e-cigarettes vaping without nicotine were observed, indicating nicotine as the main effector, the paper said.