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Serum thiocyanate concentration and cigarette smoking in relation to overall mortality and to deaths from coronary heart disease and lung cancer

1981; Pergamon Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0021-9681(81)90068-0

1878-0679

Markku Heliövaara, M J Karvonen, S Punsar, Y. Rautanen, Jaason Haapakoski,

Sulfur Compounds in Biology

Serum thiocyanate (SCN) concentration and smoking history were studied for their prediction of 15-yr mortality in 1539 men, initially aged 40–59 yr, from two rural areas of Finland. SCN improved significantly the prediction of total and coronary mortality over that attained with the aid of a smoking interview in east Finland, while in west Finland the risk associated to smoking was covered by the interview data. Age, systolic pressure, or serum cholesterol concentration did not confound these findings. The mortality of smokers in lung cancer increased with rising SCN concentration at entry in both cohorts, but this finding failed to reach statistical significance. Measurement of SCN may be of value in epidemiologic studies, where smoking is included as a suspected risk factor or as a confounder.