OBJECTIVETo assess the association between smoking status at follow-up and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

METHODSThe smoking status at follow-up was investigated in 592 patients undergoing successful PCI between Jan. 2003 and Nov. 2006. The patients were divided into three groups on the basis of their smoking status at follow-up: non-smokers (n = 272), quitters (n = 215) and current smokers (n = 105). Major adverse cardiac events were recorded.

RESULTSThe average follow-up time was 19.0 months. At follow-up, current smokers were significantly younger (P < 0.01), more likely to be male (P < 0.01) than non-smokers and had more favorable clinical and angiographic characteristics: lower prevalence of hypertension (P < 0.05) and diabetes (P < 0.05), fewer diseased vessels (P < 0.05) and fewer implanted coronary stents (P < 0.01), larger target vessel diameter (P < 0.01). However, the incidence of non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) in quitters (1.40%) was significantly higher than in nonsmokers (0.37%, P < 0.05), the incidence of nonfatal MI in current smokers (4.76%) was significantly higher than quitters (1.40%, P < 0.05) and nonsmokers (0.37%, P < 0.01). After adjustments for age, gender, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, target vessel diameter, the number of diseased vessels, the kind and number of implanted stents, and the follow-up time, multi-variables logistic regression analysis showed that current smoking was a independent predictive factor for non-fatal MI (beta = 1.28, wald chi2 = 6.91, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSSmokers, especially current smokers, were at increased risk for non-fatal MI post successful PCI. Therefore, all patients underwent PCI should be encouraged to stop smoking.