Study of lung functions in Tobacco chewers

Objective: To study pulmonary function indices of tobacco chewers and compare with those of nonusers by PFT & DLCO. Materials & methods: 60 stable patients attending OPD of D.Y.Patil Hospital, India were recruited in the study, of which 30 were chronic tobacco chewers but non smokers & 30 served as control subjects without any history of tobacco consumption. Results: In our study we had a total of 60 patients. 29/60 (48.3%) were females and 31/60 (51.7%) were males. The mean FEV1/FVC (% predicted value) for tobacco chewers was 79.8% as compared to mean FEV1 /FVC for non tobacco chewers being 83 %. The mean FEV1 (% Actual/Predicted) of tobacco chewers was 88.03 %. However for non chewers the mean FEV1 (% Actual/Predicted) was higher at 95.96 %. The MMEF 75-25 of tobacco chewers with that of non chewers and we observe that the mean MMEF 75-25 for tobacco chewers is 71.76 % while that for the non smokers is 85.43 %. Conclusion: In this study, tobacco chewers had low pulmonary function indices which may be due to increased oxidative stress. Considering the large number of tobacco chewers in our country, further studies may be required to identify the effects of tobacco chewing not only locally in the oral cavity but also other systems of the body.