Cigarette smoking leads to serious health problems and remains the most important avoidable causes of death worldwide.Hemorheology, a measure of rheological properties of blood, is often correlated with cerebral blood flow and cardiac output; anincreased blood viscosity may increase the risk of thrombosis or thromboembolic events. This study aims to evaluate the levels of fibrinogen and relative plasma viscosity in male smokers and to study the association among duration of smoking, age and number of sticks smoked per day with these parameters. A total of 189 apparently healthy subjects were enrolled in this study; 106 male smokers and 83 male non-smokers. Male smokers were group into mild and heavy smokers based on the number of stick smoked per day; mild smoker (1-19 stick per day) and heavy smokers (>20 sticks per day).Whole blood was dispensed into a trisodium citrate bottle, RPV was determined using simple syringe method, fibrinogen was determined using Clauss method. The mean values of RPV and fibrinogen for the male smokers were significantly higher than those of the non-smokers (P<0.05); asignificant negative correlation was observed between fibrinogen levels and age among the male smokers (P<0.05). Smokers in the age range of 15-30 years recorded significantly higher mean fibrinogen levels compared to those in the age range of 31-55 years (P<0.05). Results from the present study reveal that smokers recorded higher mean values of fibrinogen and RPV and thus maybe at an increased risk of developing atherothrombotic diseases.
