Exposure to Electronic Cigarettes
Conditions
Keywords
e-cigarette, electronic cigarette, lung function
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether changing from conventional smoking to electronic cigarettes causes changes in conventional lung function parameters, bronchial reactivity, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), Carbon monoxide (CO), health effects and smoking behaviour.
Detailed description
STUDY BACKGROUND / RATIONALE / PURPOSE: There is still little known about the health effects by vaping electronic cigarettes. Some former studies investigated the short term effects of vaping regarding lung function, respiratory resistance and FeNO (fractional exhaled nitric oxide). Flouris et al., 2013 did not found significant short term effects on conventional lung function parameters. Vardavas et al., 2012 also found no short term effects on conventional lung function parameters, but an increase of respiratory resistance and a decrease of FeNO. In contrast, Schober et al., 2014 observed an increase of FeNO after vaping electronic cigarettes. Experimental studies have shown, that electronic cigarettes induce an inflammatory process in epithelial cells (Lerner et al., 2015; Wu, Jiang, Minor, and Chu, 2014). Lim and Kim, 2014 investigated the effects of e-liquids on the airway reactivity and inflammation on allergic sensitized mice. Reactivity and inflammation got worse. Long term data is still missing. For this purpose we want to investigate lung function, airway reactivity, health status and smoking/vaping behaviour in smokers at the time they intend to start vaping and after 3 months.
Interventions
None listed
Sponsors
Study design
Eligibility
Inclusion criteria
* smoking ≥ 5 years * smoking ≥ 10 cigarettes per day * no intention to stop smoking within the last 3 months * using e-cigarettes with nicotine * no infection of airways at the time of measurements * e-cigarette group: intending to use e-cigarettes * control group: smoking cessation in the framework of a clinical conducted program
Exclusion criteria
* pregnancy or breastfeeding * not speaking German * known allergy * acute psychiatric diseases, suicidal tendency * drug/substance/alcohol abuse * severe internal diseases
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| lung function | 3 months | Tiffeneau-Index |
| quality of life | 3 months | WHO quality of life - questionary |
| respiratory tract inflammation activity | 3 months | FeNO (exhaled nitric oxide) |
Countries
Germany