Erythrocyte filtration and smoking.

Erythrocyte filterability may be influenced by 'acute' smoking with subsequent changes of RBC filterability and by chronic inhalation of cigarette smoke which may lead to chronic alterations. To evaluate chronic alterations of RBC deformability we compared the erythrocyte filtration rates of 60 young, healthy chronic smokers (30 female, 30 male) with those of 60 young, healthy non-smokers (again 30 female and 30 male). The comparison showed a higher filtration rate in the male non-smokers group than in the group of the male smokers, the difference however was not statistically significant. Female smokers and non-smokers did not show any noticeable difference in their RBC filtration rates.