Insights into pathophysiology of smoke-related cardiovascular disease.

The deleterious effects of cigarette smoke on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are well established. Both active and passive smoking represent a major health hazard for both men and women. The big concerns related to the deleterious effects of CS on cardiovascular disease have been translated into various kinds of social interventions and targeted health policies since ever. The high impact of cigarette smoking on health has driven a huge number of researches both at the epidemiologic, clinical and biological level. Nevertheless, even though many progresses have been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying the high disease burden associated to cigarette smoke, the exact components and the mechanisms by means of which it exerts its effects remain to be completely clarified yet. The present article reviews the main observations on the pathophysiology of smoke-related cardiovascular diseases, providing an up-to-date perspective about one of the bigger cardiovascular killers of our days.