Relationship of serum thiocyanate concentrations to smoking characteristics

Abstract

Thiocyanate (SCN) concentrations were determined in serum samples from 130 young healthy persons (60 smokers) and related to their smoking and physiologic characteristics. Serum thiocyanate correlated strongly and approximately equally with the number of cigarettes/d X kg of ideal body weight (IBW) (r = 0.748), total nicotine intake in mg/d X kg IBW (r = 0.735), and total tar intake in mg/d X kg IBW (r = 0.731). Multiple linear regression analysis that included these factors as well as sex, marijuana use, menthol, and degree of inhalation only increased the multiple r to 0.803. A more sensitive statistical method (NYBAID) was also used to determine the most significant influences of these variables on serum SCN. The association with depth of inhalation (i.e., smoking versus nonsmoking) was dominant among the relationships considered. The highest SCN levels were exhibited in heavy nicotine users (8.58 +/- 3.00 mg/l), while average users had slightly lower concentrations (6.49 +/- 2.37 mg/l) (p less than 0.03). In nontobacco smokers, those who smoked marijuana several times weekly had higher SCN levels (4.66 +/- 2.16 mg/l) than noncannabis users (2.38 +/- 1.38 mg/l) (p less than 0.03). These studies confirm the utility of serum SCN as an index of smoking rate and demonstrate the role of secondary variables in accounting for the chemical in serum.

Cigarette Smoking and Incidence of Multiple Sclerosis

“…a component of cigarette smoke (42). for which levels in the blood--and levels of its main metabolite, thiocyanate-are strongly correlated with amount of smoking (43,44), has long been known to cause dentyelination in the central nervous system of animals administered comparatively large (45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55). and possibly also lower (2.…”

Determination of Thiocyanate Anion by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorimetric Detection

“…Thiocyanate anion (SCN-) is a metabolic product of the highly toxic cyanide. Cyano-containing organic substances, including drugs (1,2), food (3)(4)(5), and tobacco smoke (6,7), can be metabolized to cyanide and in turn converted to SCNby the enzyme thiosulfate sulfur-transferase (rhodanese). Therefore, the concentration of SCN-in body fluid is considered to be a good indicator for drug monitoring in patients treated with cyano-containing drug such as sodium nitroprusside; the blood concentrations of SCN-can also be used for differentiating between smoker and nonsmoker.…”

Determination of Thiocyanate in Plasma by Ion Chromatography and Ultraviolet Detection

“…The SCN-plasma concentration is considered to be a good indicator for cyano-containing organic substances exposure, as SCN-is inevitably high when blood CN-levels are increased. Determination of thiocyanate in plasma is therefore of great interest in monitoring cyanide exposure from tobacco smoke, the main source of cyanide in the environment (1,(4)(5)(6), and from fire smoke (7,8), in association with cyanide measurement in blood, which has a very brief half-life (60 rain). However, SCN-measurements are of growing importance in other disorders (endemic goiter, tropical diabetes, ataxic neuropathy, infantile myxedema) associated with increases in plasma SCN-resulting from ingestion of cyanogenic glycosides contained in food, particularly some vegetables (1,4,6,9,10).…”