Evaluation of the effect of smoking on complete blood counts, serum C-reactive protein and magnesium levels in healthy adult male smokers.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of smoking on complete blood count, serum C-reactive protein and magnesium levels in male smokers. METHODS The prospective case-control study was conducted in two villages of Matiari district in rural Sindh, Pakistan, from July to December 2013, and comprised healthy adult male smokers and an equal number of matching non-smokers as controls.The complete blood count, serum C-reactive protein and magnesium levels in all the subjects were measured to assess the effect of smoking on these parameters. RESULTS The two groups had 48 subjects each with an overall age range of 20-40 years. The results of complete blood count were comparable except for lymphocyte, which was significantly higher (p<0.001), and neutrophil, which was lower (p<0.001) in smokers than in the non-smokers. Serum C-reactive protein concentrations among the cases (14.62±0.16mg/L) compared to the controls (4.81±0.38mg/L) were significantly higher (p<0.001). However, reverse was true for serum magnesium levels which were significantly higher (p<0.001) in the controls (2.52±0.18mg/L) as against the cases (1.09±0.38mg/dl).Serum C-reactive protein-to-magnesium ratio was significantly higher (p<0.001) in smokers than in the non-smokers. CONCLUSION Lymphocyte count was higher while neutrophil count was lower in smokers. Smoking also caused significant increase in serum C-reactive protein concentration concomitant to decrease in magnesium concentration in the smokers.