Smoking, Catecholamines, and the Heart

Abstract

Ample, carefully documented evidence supports the familiar warning printed on each of the 30 billion packages of cigarettes sold in this country each year. Nonetheless, cigarette consumption in this country continues to rise at the rate of 2 to 3 per cent per year. Of the illnesses in which increased morbidity or mortality has been associated with cigarette smoking none are of greater public-health importance than coronary-artery disease.¹ A great deal of epidemiologic and laboratory effort has been directed toward gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms by which smoking promotes the development and exacerbates the symptoms of atherosclerotic coronary-artery . . .