The current study was conducted to investigate the acute physiologic changes related to secondhand exposure in children in a naturalistic setting. By studying exposure in conditions most closely mimicking household exposure, the investigators aimed to generate findings with clinical selleck chemicals Pazopanib implications for parental smokers. Specifically, we investigated the hypothesis that exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO), HR, and blood pressure (BP) would increase acutely in exposed but not in unexposed children. Methods Study design A nonrandomized controlled design was used to examine the physiologic effects of acute exposure to tobacco smoke in a group of children who were chronically exposed to smoking daily in the home as compared with a control group of children with no household smoke exposure.

Acute smoke exposure involved the child sitting within 7 feet of the parent while the parent smoked one cigarette. The rationale for choosing exposure to a single cigarette is based on previous study findings of physiologic changes related to this unit of exposure (Kool, Hoeks, Struijker Boudier, Reneman, & Van Bortel, 1993; Mahmud & Feely, 2003; Rubenstein, Jesty, & Bluestein, 2004). The study was designed to measure changes in eCO, HR, and SBP and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The physiologic variables were measured before and after acute smoke exposure and compared with changes in an unexposed control group who experienced a time-lapse equivalent to the duration of the acute smoke exposure procedure. Subjects The current study was conducted as part of a larger ongoing community-based research study on health disparities in heart disease (Aiyer et al.

, 2007); recruitment strategies focused on communities with disproportionate rates of heart disease/risk factors. Study subjects, recruited at community health fairs and through referral from local pediatric offices in collaboration with the community-based research study, were healthy parent�Cchild dyads who fit the study criteria for one of two study groups, exposed and unexposed. ��Parent�� subjects had to be at least 18 years old, be the parent or guardian of, and live at home with the child subject. Child participants were between 5 and 17 years of age. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Pittsburgh. Exposed group. The exposed group consisted of parent�Cchild dyads in which the parent subject reported current daily smoking and a history of smoking at least 100 cigarettes over his/her lifetime, and the child subject was a self-reported nonsmoker. In order to confirm eligibility criteria for exposure group assignment for teenage children, Dacomitinib a confidential written screening questionnaire was administered separately to children at least 12 years of age.