DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i04.023

Pages: 1726-1728

The research was set to assess whether habitual use or misuse of tobacco products through smoking would bring about a change in plasma osmolality in humans. A total of 120 blood samples were analysed.90 blood samples were collected from male smokers of various cigarette brands, the remaining 30 samples were collected from apparently healthy non smokers. The plasma concentration of sodium, potassium, urea and glucose was estimated in all the samples, the values subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 17. The plasma osmolality was then calculated from the values of all estimated parameters. The plasma osmolality of the smoking group (297.35±8.93) was found to be higher than that of the control group (293.98±7.23).It was also found to be well outside the reference interval. Though the variation in plasma osmolality between the smokers and non smokers might not be statistically significant, it could be said to be of a clinically significant value when the mean plasma osmolality of smokers is compared with the reference interval. This research therefore discovered that plasma osmolality is higher in smokers than in non smokers.