[Plasma fibrinogen concentration in smoking and nonsmoking patients treated from alcohol addiction]

Cigarette smoking is common among persons addicted to alcohol. Both tobacco smoking and alcohol binge drinking are risk factors of many cardiovascular conditions. The risk of cardiovascular events decreases after alcohol cessation. However little is known about the effect of continues smoking on biomarkers of adverse cardiovascular events among patients treated from alcohol addiction. The aim of the study was to assess fibrinogen changes after alcohol drinking cessation among cigarette smokers and non-smokers. Total of 239 patients treated from alcohol addiction in Addiction Treatment Center (OTU) Parzymiechy, Poland were included in the study. There were total of 39 women: 11 non-smoking women, in the age range of between 31 and 59 years (mean age 47 +/- 9 years) and 28 smoking women in the age range of 31-60 years (mean age 43 +/- 8 years). Among 200 men, there were 150 smokers in the age range of between 30 and 60 years (mean age 44 +/- 8 years) and 50 non-smokers in the age range of 31 and 60 years (mean age 49 +/- 9 years). We found that among non-smoking patients fibrinogen levels remained unchanged three weeks post alcohol cessation (3.42 vs. 3.49 g/l) but after six weeks significantly decreased to the level of 3.09 g/l (p=0.00085). Among smoking patients fibrinogen levels increased after three weeks post alcohol cessation by 7.9% (z 3.41 do 3.68 g/l) and went back to a baseline level of 3.50 g/l. However those changes were not statistically significant. We found that alcohol cessation leads to decrease of fibrinogen levels only among non-smoking patients post alcohol cessation. A risk of cardiovascular diseases seemed to remain elevated among smokers treated from alcohol addiction. There is need for concomitant treatment of tobacco addiction among smoking alcoholics.