Objectives: To investigate possible associations between smoking habits and other coronary risk factors in postmenopausal women with known coronary heart disease (CHD).
Setting: The study was conducted at a university clinic.
Subjects: A total of 118 postmenopausal women with CHD verified with angiography, consecutively recruited.
Interventions: Conventional treatment for CHD. The women were randomized to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with transdermal 17-beta oestradiol and medroxyprogesterone acetate, or to a control group.
Results: Smokers were younger (P = 0.005), had lower body mass index (P = 0.04) and lipoprotein Lp(a) levels (P = 0.02) compared with nonsmokers. Smokers had reduced beta-cell function (homeostasis model assessment, P = 0.006), whereas whole blood viscosity (WBV) was higher at all shear rates. WBV was not affected by HRT over a 12-month period. Oestrone levels were higher in smokers.
Conclusions: Smoking adversely affects insulin secretion (beta-cell function) and WBV in postmenopausal women with established CHD, which could be of importance as a mechanism for the increased risk of CHD in smokers. The importance of smoking as a risk factor, overrides the effect of Lp(a), which is lower in smokers compared with nonsmokers.