Approximately half of all women presenting to the emergency department with angina chest pain do not have obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) on coronary angiography. This condition is termed non-obstructive coronary artery disease (NOCAD), and includes ischemia with no obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA) and myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA). Oxidative stress has been reported to be involved in the development and progression of CAD. However, a scarcity of studies has assessed a correlation between oxidative stress and NOCAD. Thus, a literature review was performed of available reports on the role of oxidative stress in NOCAD. Possible mechanisms involved in oxidative stress that may contribute to NOCAD were identified and evaluated. A key finding of this literature review was that oxidative stress caused vasoconstriction and endothelial damage, and this results in coronary microvascular dysfunction and vasospasm, which, in turn, lead to the pathogenesis of NOCAD.

Anthropometric variables (AV) are shown to be essential in assessing health status and to serve as markers for evaluating health-related risks in different populations. Studying the impact of physical activity (PA) on AV and its relationship with smoking is a non-trivial task from a public health perspective. In this study, a total of 107 healthy male smokers (37 ± 9.42 years) were recruited from different states in Malaysia. Standard procedures of measurement of several anthropometric indexes were carried out, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPPQ) was used to ascertain the PA levels of the participants. A principal component analysis was employed to examine the AV associated with physical activity, k-means clustering was used to group the participants with respect to the PA levels, and discriminant analysis models were utilized to determine the differential variables between the groups. A logistic regression (LR) model was further employed to ascertain the efficacy of the discriminant models in classifying the two smoking groups. Six AV out of twelve were associated with smoking behaviour. Two groups were obtained from the k-means analysis, based on the IPPQ and termed partially physically active smokers (PPAS) or physically nonactive smokers (PNAS). The PNAS were found to be at high risk of contracting cardiovascular problems, as compared with the PPAS. The PPAS cluster was characterized by a desirable AV, as well as a lower level of nicotine compared with the PNAS cluster. The LR model revealed that certain AV are vital for maintaining good health, and a partially active lifestyle could be effective in mitigating the effect of tobacco on health in healthy male smokers.

Studies have demonstrated that secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure could impair endothelial function. However, the effect of SHS exposure specifically on microvascular endothelial function is not well understood. This study aimed to determine the effects of SHS exposure on microvascular endothelial function among non-smoking, generally healthy women. We studied 127 women; and based on their hair nicotine levels measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, 25 of them were categorized as having higher hair nicotine levels, 25 were grouped as having lower hair nicotine and 77 women were grouped into the non-detected group. The non-detected group did not have detectable levels of hair nicotine. Anthropometry, blood pressure (BP), lipid profile and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were measured accordingly. Microvascular endothelial function was assessed non-invasively using laser Doppler fluximetry and the process of iontophoresis involving acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside as endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilators respectively. The mean hair nicotine levels for higher and lower hair nicotine groups were 0.74 (1.04) and 0.05 (0.01) ng/mg respectively. There were no significant differences in anthropometry, BP, lipid profile and hsCRP between these groups. There were also no significant differences in the microvascular perfusion and endothelial function between these groups. In this study, generally healthy non-smoking women who have higher, lower and non-detected hair nicotine levels did not show significant differences in their microvascular endothelial function. Low levels of SHS exposure among generally healthy non-smoking women may not significantly impair their microvascular endothelial function.

Ingestion of tobacco is detrimental to overall health that could affect the normal function of several health parameters in the human body. While it has been generally documented that smoking is injurious to health, the influence of tobacco on certain health parameters with regards to the duration of smoking in individuals without any apparent health issues is yet to be fully investigated. The current study investigated the effect of smoking on health parameters of healthy male smokers. A total of 107 (37 ± 9.42) years were enlisted randomly from different locations in Malaysia and several health-related parameters were measured. A k-means cluster analysis was employed to classify the smokers into groups based on their smoking period while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the differences in the health parameters status of the smokers. The k-means clustering analysis identified two distinct groups namely; chronic and acute smokers whilst the ANOVA indicated that the chronic smokers are older and characterised with a considerably higher diastolic blood pressure levels, total cholesterol, visceral fat, leptin as well as high and low-density lipoprotein. Moreover, chronic smokers are found to be highly dependent on nicotine p < 0.05. Nonetheless, no significant difference was found in basal metabolic rate systolic blood pressure, heart rate, nicotine level as well as calories intake amongst the smoking groups p > 0.05. The long-term smokers are predisposed to higher risks of cardiovascular-related problems, high fat accumulation as well as dependence on nicotine, among others.