1987 Volume 153 Issue 4 Pages 303-311
KUBOTA, K., MATSUZAWA, T., FUJIWARA, T., YAMAGUCHI, T., ITO, K., WATANABE, H. and ONO, S. Age-Related Brain Atrophy Enhanced by Smoking: A Quantitative Study with Computed Tomography. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1987, 153 (4), 303-311 - We examined the chronic effect of smoking on brain atrophy quantitatively with computed tomography (CT). Study was performed on 159 smokers and 194 non-smokers from 40 to 69 years old with neither neurological nor focal abnormality in brain CT. Brain atrophy index (BAI) which was a quantitative marker of brain atrophy reported previously, was calculated from each pixel of brain CT. There was a significant age dependent increase of BAI in both non-smokers and smokers. Smokers showed a significant increase in BAI (atrophic) compared to non-smokers in three age groups, 50-54, 55-59 (p<0.01, both) and 65-69 (p<0.05). In the male, the mean BAI became high when the smoking index increased (p<0.01). The systolic blood pressure and serum triglycerides of smokers were significantly higher than the non-smokers (p<0.05 and p<0.01). It was suggested that age-related brain atrophy was increased by chronic smoking through advanced atherosclerosis.
