Relationship of Smoking to Cardiovascular Disease and Peripheral Vascular Disease

Our plain-English summary of Relationship of Smoking to Cardiovascular Disease and Peripheral Vascular Disease, by A.M. Olsen, O. Auerbach, D. Chadwick, et al (1968).

The study

• Authors: A.M. Olsen, O. Auerbach, D. Chadwick, O. Paul, A. Soffer, T. Winsor
• Published: Diseases of the Chest, Volume 54 No3. September 1968
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This 1968 item is a recorded panel discussion, not a research study, and it does not concern asbestos. A moderator and five physicians discussed cigarette smoking in relation to coronary heart disease and peripheral vascular disease. They drew mainly on published research and clinical experience rather than reporting a formal new study. Dr. Paul described other researchers' large prospective studies as showing an association between cigarette smoking and heart attacks and coronary deaths, and called coronary disease a problem with many causes. Dr. Paul also said the number of cigarettes smoked per day may matter more than how many years a person has smoked. Dr. Auerbach recalled the group's earlier autopsy work, in which coronary arteriosclerosis was greater in cigarette smokers than in nonsmokers and increased with the amount smoked. Dr. Chadwick said papers questioning the link were used by tobacco interests to overstate scientific disagreement. Dr. Winsor described a demonstration for patients with vascular disease in which skin-temperature pictures and blood-flow recordings showed vessels narrowing after smoking. Many passages of the supplied text are badly garbled.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Panel discussion (moderated expert discussion); no formal original study
• Who was studied: No study population; a moderator (Arthur M. Olsen) and five physician discussants talking about published studies and clinical practice
• Exposure: Tobacco smoking: mainly cigarette smoking, with some discussion of cigar and pipe smoking. No asbestos exposure is discussed.
• Main results:
  • Dr. Paul said at least six large prospective studies in the United States had examined cigarette smoking and coronary artery disease, and described them as showing an association. These are other researchers' studies, not this article's.
  • Dr. Paul said the number of cigarettes smoked per day may be more important than the duration of smoking
  • Dr. Auerbach described the group's earlier published autopsy studies, in which coronary arteriosclerosis was higher among cigarette smokers than among nonsmokers and increased with the amount smoked
  • Dr. Chadwick said articles questioning the smoking link, such as Seltzer's paper, were used by the tobacco industry to suggest more scientific disagreement than actually existed
  • Dr. Winsor described a demonstration used with the panelists' patients, involving thermography and plethysmography. Measurements were taken while the patient smoked, repeated after some days without smoking, and repeated again after the patient smoked a cigarette rapidly. The last step showed vasoconstriction. No numbers were given.
• The authors' conclusion: Dr. Paul concluded that the epidemiologic data point to multiple causes of coronary disease and show an association with cigarette smoking. The remainder of the sentence is garbled in the supplied text.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Autopsy.

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