Cessation of smoking in patients with intermittent claudication. Effects on the risk of peripheral vascular complications, myocardial infarction and mortality.

The effects of cessation of smoking were studied in 343 patients with intermittent claudication. One year after the initial examination 39 (11%) had stopped smoking and 304 (89%) continued to smoke. The outcome in these two groups was compared. They were comparable regarding baseline characteristics. Rest pain did not develop in any of the non-smokers. In smokers the cumulative proportion with rest pain was 16% after seven years (p less than 0.05). The cumulative proportions with myocardial infarctions after 10 years were 11 and 53%; the cumulative rates of cardiac deaths 6 and 43%; and the 10-year survival 82 and 46% among non-smokers and smokers, respectively. In multivariate Cox regression analyses the association between smoking and infarction (p less than 0.05) and cardiac death (p less than 0.05) was significant. The survival curves deviated and when they were compared after one year's follow-up the association between smoking and mortality was significant (p less than 0.05). The findings provide further evidence for the fact that it is of utmost importance that patients with intermittent claudication stop smoking.