The Acute Effects of Electronic Cigarette Vaping and Tobacco Cigarette Smoking on Choroidal Thickness in Young, Healthy, Habitual, Dual Smokers

Olga E Makri; Athina Pallikari; Konstantinos Kagkelaris; Stylianos N Mastronikolis; Georgios Karanasios; Chrysanthos Symeonidis; Panagiotis Plotas; Constantine D Georgakopoulos

doi:10.3390/toxics8040085

The Acute Effects of Electronic Cigarette Vaping and Tobacco Cigarette Smoking on Choroidal Thickness in Young, Healthy, Habitual, Dual Smokers

Toxics. 2020 Oct 11;8(4):85. doi: 10.3390/toxics8040085.

Authors

Olga E Makri¹, Athina Pallikari¹, Konstantinos Kagkelaris¹, Stylianos N Mastronikolis¹, Georgios Karanasios², Chrysanthos Symeonidis³, Panagiotis Plotas¹, Constantine D Georgakopoulos¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Medical School, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
² Department of Pharmacy, Medical School, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
³ 2nd Department of Ophthalmology, "Papageorgiou" General Hospital, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate and compare the acute effects of tobacco cigarettes (TC) smoking and electronic cigarette (EC) vaping on foveal and choroidal thickness (CT) in young, healthy, dual smokers. Participants underwent four trials: 5 min TC; 5 min EC; 30 min EC; and 60 min nothing (sham trial). Scans before and immediately after each trial were obtained using spectral domain optical coherence tomography with the enhanced depth imaging mode. Changes in central foveal thickness (CFT), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and CT at fourother points, 500 μm and 1000 μm temporally and nasally to the fovea, were measured. Forty-seven participants (33 male, 14 female; mean age 24.85 ± 1.57 years) were included. They smoked 13.53 ± 5.27 TCs/day for 6 ± 2.3 years and vaped ECs for the past 2.4 ± 1.08 years. We did not observe any statistically significant change in SFCT, CFT, and CT of the other points after any of the fourtrials. The acute changes in CFT and CT after EC vaping or TC smoking did not differ significantly compared to the sham trial. Smoking and vaping does not seem to result in statistically significant acute alterations in foveal and CT in young, dual smokers.

Keywords: central macular thickness; choroidal thickness; dual smokers; electronic cigarette vaping; electronic cigarettes; nicotine; smoking; tobacco cigarettes.