Acute effects of cigarette smoking on global cerebral blood flow in overnight abstinent tobacco smokers

Abstract

We examined whether cerebral vascular reactivity to 5% CO2/95% O2 would be a useful, independent measure of effects of tobacco smoking on global cerebral blood flow (gCBF). The acute effects during smoking one's favorite brand of cigarettes were determined after overnight tobacco abstinence. Positron emission tomography was used to quantitatively measure gCBF using H(2)15O in 10 right-handed young-adult male volunteer tobacco smokers. After a 12-hr abstinence, gCBF measurements were repeated six times at 15-min intervals: First baseline, 5% CO2/95% O2 inhalation, first cigarette smoking, second baseline, 5% CO2/95% O2 inhalation, and second cigarette smoking. Surprisingly, no significant change was seen in mean gCBF during smoking compared with baseline. However, the increase in arterial plasma concentration of nicotine correlated inversely with gCBF. Out of 19 smoking sessions, gCBF increased in 7, decreased in 7, and was unchanged in 5 sessions. The gCBF increased during smoking when baseline gCBF was relatively low, whereas gCBF decreased when baseline gCBF was relatively high. Both vascular reactivity and estimated gCBF plus arterial nicotine concentrations were useful measures to predict the changes in measured gCBF. These individual differences result in important bimodal effects of smoking on the brains of different young adult tobacco smokers.

Smoking, nicotine and neuropsychiatric disorders

“…The SPECT studies by Yamamoto et al (2003) and Rourke et al (1997) and the PET study by Rose et al (1998) described a decline in global CBF after smoking, too (Rourke et al, 1997;Stapleton et al, 2003;Yamamoto et al, 2003). Shinohara et al (2006) found with PET no significant changes in global CBF after NIC administration (smoking) in smokers, however they found a statistically significant inverse correlation between arterial NIC concentrations and CBF (Shinohara et al, 2006). Global cerebral glucose metabolism was also found diminished after NIC administration (Stapleton et al, 2003;Rose et al, 2007).…”

Respiratory challenge MRI: Practical aspects

“…Factors that may influence blood flow and reactivity include time of day ( Strohm et al, 2014 ), nicotine ( Shinohara et al, 2006 ), food ( Tsai et al, 2004 ), alcohol ( Gundersen et al, 2013 ), body mass ( Selim et al, 2008 ), haematocrit ( Hudak et al, 1986 ) and hormonal cycles ( Bartelink et al, 1990 ). Visual stimulation and speaking will result in increased CBF to active brain regions ( Ito et al, 2001 ), but sleep can reduce the cerebrovascular response to CO 2 ( Ainslie and Duffin, 2009 ), so most tests may be best performed on an awake, silent patient with closed eyes.…”

Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Smoking Factors Differentially Modulate Craving, Withdrawal and Cerebral Blood Flow as Measured with Arterial Spin Labeling

“…Nicotine and tobacco smoke have both vasoconstrictive and vasodilatory effects on the cerebrovasculature (Iida et al, 1998). Long-term cigarette smoking has been shown to reduce rCBF (Rogers et al, 1985;Yamashita et al, 1988); however, overnight abstention from cigarettes among chronic smokers has been shown to have limited (Wang et al, 2007) or no effect on rCBF (Shinohara et al, 2006;Tanabe et al, 2008). Other studies have shown both increases and/or decreases in rCBF owing to nicotine administration or cigarette smoking (Mathew and Wilson, 1991;Domino et al, 2000Domino et al, , 2004Rose et al, 2003); some of these differences may depend on whether smokers were tested in an abstinent or satiated state (Zubieta et al, 2005;Tanabe et al, 2008) or on the measures used to quantify rCBF (eg, magnetic resonance imaging vs positron emission tomography).…”