Researchers create smartphone-compatible tools to assess the effects of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in partnership with the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI), and UC Irvine, sheds light on the detrimental effects of both electronic and traditional cigarettes on cardiovascular health. The findings reveal that while electronic cigarettes damage blood vessels, conventional cigarettes primarily harm the heart.
The study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) was led by Rashid Alavi, during his time as a mechanical engineering PhD student in the lab of Niema Pahlevan, the Gordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair in Engineering at USC and Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), Pahlevan is a leading specialist in flow physics for application in medical diagnostics and treatment, and is recognized as an innovator in non-invasive measuring techniques to gain insights into heart health.
Study Focus and Methodology
The study applies an innovative fluid dynamics-based analysis technique to measure the impact of nicotine exposure via e-cigarette vapor and traditional cigarette vapor. Although the study was performed on animal models, it can also be applied to humans, as has been done in other applications including heart failure. For humans, one can use smartphone cameras to identify abnormalities in cardiovascular function.
Pahlevan explains how the process works. “For human applications, the smartphone camera captures images of the neck skin. Then an algorithm extracts vessel wall dilation from the skin vibrations recorded in the images. This dilation waveform mirrors the pressure waveform in large arteries, such as the carotid where wall viscoelasticity is minimal.”
The results reveal that nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes negatively impact vascular function and left ventricle-arterial coupling. Traditional cigarettes were also found to significantly impair left ventricle contractile function. These findings demonstrate potential long-term consequences for cardiovascular health.
“Vaping with nicotine is causing accelerated aging of the vascular system,” said Pahlevan.
Implications for Public Health
While electronic cigarettes with nicotine have gained popularity as a potential aid for quitting traditional smoking, their impact on cardiovascular health remained poorly understood – until now.
“People have this idea that e-cigarettes are much better than traditional cigarettes, so they quit traditional smoking and try e-cigarettes with nicotine. However, e-cigarettes with nicotine have so many adverse effects, so they need to be carefully considered,” said Pahlevan.
“The goal of this study was to raise awareness about vaping and its long-term effects on the cardiovascular system,” said Alavi, whose thesis was recognized for the top-4 thesis in the USC Viterbi Best PhD Dissertation Award and who is now the James Boswell Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech and HMRI. “When the vessels become impaired, this will eventually impact the heart. We want to help people to make informed decisions about whether to use a substance or not, ” Alavi added.
A smartphone tool, adds Alavi, can also be used in the final application by people who vape to allow them to assess if they are at risk.
The intrinsic frequency method which is a new fluid dynamics-based analysis technique ‘is clearly very sensitive to capturing abnormalities in the cardiovascular system, even more than some standard hemodynamic measures. In addition, it is exciting that this technique can be applied to cell phone applications to assess the heart’s function,” said Dr. Robert Kloner, Chief Scientific Officer at HMRI, and Professor of Medicine (clinical scholar) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
This approach holds significant potential for human applications. By developing a new, cost-effective method for detecting cardiovascular damage using only carotid pressure waveform (neck pulse) measurements, the study paves the way for faster, easier, and more widespread testing.
The next step is to test the tool in human clinical trials.
Reference: “Adverse Cardiovascular Effects of Nicotine Delivered by Chronic Electronic Cigarettes or Standard Cigarettes Captured by Cardiovascular Intrinsic Frequencies” by Rashid Alavi, Wangde Dai, Sohrab P. Mazandarani, Rebecca J. Arechavala, David A. Herman, Michael T. Kleinman, Robert A. Kloner and Niema M. Pahlevan, 11 September 2024, Journal of the American Heart Association.
DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.124.035462
The study as funded by the University of California and the James G. Boswell Foundation.
Disclosures: N.M. Pahlevan holds equity in Ventric Health (Avicena LLC) and has a consulting agreement with Ventric Health (Avicena LLC).