Elevated Serum Crp Levels In Smokers: A Comparerive Cross Sectional Study At Hyderabad, Pakistan

C-reactive protein is a marker of inflammation that possesses a diagnostic value in much ongoing pathology. The habit of Smoking is so common that almost all age groups of both genders are involved in this around the globe. We aimed this study to evaluate the serum levels of this inflammatory marker in smokers and compare it with the non-smoker volunteers. It is already a known fact that smoking predisposes a person to many diseases (heart and lung diseases to malignancies).We aimed to evaluate and compare serum CRP levels in smokers and non- smokers. This cross sectional study was carried out at department of biochemistry, Isra hospital lab at Isra University Hyderabad that lasted for 6 months June 2016- Dec 2016. The project was approved by institutional ethical review committee inclusion and exclusion criteria were constructed for Smokers and non-smoker subjects which were selected by probability sampling. A total 60 individuals was selected for study and divided into group A (30 non-smokers) andgroup B (30 smokers). Demographic data was sought on proforma was designed for demographic data collection. Serum CRP levels were assessed in Isra hospital lab after drawing the blood from the willing and consent providing individuals. Collection of blood was under aseptic measures. Serum mean C-reactive protein levels in smokers was 1.09±0.82mg/dl while it was0.27± 0.23mg/dl in non- smokers that was significant statistically (p-value 0.001). BMI was calculated from height and weight and comparison was done among two groups using student’s t-test on SPSS Version 22. Frequency and percentage was counted for duration of smoking and number of cigarette smoked per day. Mean age of the study population was 35.5 years, minimum age was 26 and maximum was 44 years. There was no significant difference in BMI of the smokers 29.47+ 3.81 and non-smokers 27.71+3.56Kg/m2 (p-value calculated was 0.67).Serum CRP level was found significantly higher in smokers in comparison to non-smokers. Key Words: CRP, Atherosclerosis, Smoking