A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING ON SERUM CREACTIVE PROTEIN, COMPLETE BLOOD COUNTS AND MAGNESIUM LEVELS AMONG HEALTHY ADULT MALE SMOKERS

Objective: To examine the effects of smoking on complete blood count, serum C-reactive protein and magnesium levels in adult male smokers. Methods: The control study was conducted in two villages of Gujranwala district in Punjab, Pakistan, from July to December 2016. The subjects used in this study were healthy adult male smokers and equal number of matching non-smokers as controls. The complete blood count, serum C- reactive protein and magnesium levels in all the subjects were measured in order to assess the effect of smoking on these parameters. Results: The 48 subjects had an overall age range of 20-40 years. The complete blood count results were comparable except for lymphocyte. It was significantly higher (p<0.001), and neutrophil was lower (p<0.001) in smokers than in the non-smokers. Serum C-reactive protein concentrations among the cases (14.62±0.16mg/L) compared to the controls (4.81±0.38mg/L) were significantly higher (p<0.001). However, reverse was true for serum magnesium levels which were significantly higher (p<0.001) in the controls (2.52±0.18mg/L) as against the cases (1.09±0.38mg/dl).Serum C-reactive protein-to-magnesium ratio was significantly higher (p<0.001) in smokers than in the non-smokers. Conclusion: Lymphocyte count was found higher while neutrophil count was lower in smokers. Smoking also caused major increase in serum C-reactive protein concentration concomitant to decrease in magnesium concentration in the smokers. Keywords: Smoking, Complete blood counts, C-reactive protein, Magnesium.