Chest
Volume 86, Issue 3, September 1984, Pages 383-386
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Clinical Investigations
The Relationship of the Peripheral Leukocyte Count and Cigarette Smoking to Pulmonary Function Among Adult Men

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The relationship of the peripheral leukocyte count to pulmonary function was examined in 1,510 men. There were 466 current cigarette smokers, 485 former cigarette smokers, and 559 never smokers enrolled in a longitudinal study of aging. Spirometry was performed twice on all subjects ten years apart. A multiple regression analysis indicated that leukocyte count was inversely related to baseline levels of both forced vital capacity (FVC) (p<0.001) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) (p<0.001) after adjustment for age, height, and smoking habits. Similarly, change in leukocyte count over a ten-year period was inversely related to follow-up levels of both FVC (p =0.036) and FEV, (p=0.004) after adjustment for baseline levels of leukocyte count, pulmonary function, age, height, and smoking habits. These data suggest that the peripheral leukocyte count is an important determinant of level of pulmonary function. Further investigation of the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved in this association seems indicated.

Section snippets

Population

The population of this study was 2,144 men, 21 to 80 years of age, participating in the Normative Aging Study.9 The Normative Aging Study is a longitudinal study of aging initiated in 1963 and located at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston. As previously published,9 volunteers were screened according to health criteria at entry. As a consequence of the prescreening, the Normative Aging Study provided a population with no known chronic medical conditions at the outset of the

RESULTS

Leukocyte counts were highest in current smokers, particularly in those who smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day, and lowest in never smokers (F3, 1505 = 91.74, p<0.001, analysis of covariance; Table 1).

Mean baseline pulmonary function levels, adjusted for age and height, are presented for various leukocyte count (tertiles) and smoking status groups in Table 2. As expected, FVC and FEV1 levels were higher in never smokers than in former smokers which were, in turn, higher than in current

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study clearly confirm earlier epidemiologic studies that document a relationship between cigarette smoking and the peripheral leukocyte count.7, 8 In our study, leukocyte counts of current smokers were roughly 1,500 cells/cu mm higher than those of never smokers (Table 1). This effect seems to be immediate and occurs with relatively few cigarettes, and there seems to be little difference between never and exsmokers.7 The mechanism for this increase is unknown, although both

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    Support for this research provided by the Medical Research Service of The Veterans Administration.

    Manuscript received December 14; revision accepted February 29.

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