Tobacco smoking behavior among high school students in Poland

The aim of the study was to examine Polish students' smoking behavior. A group of 671 students completed a questionnaire about smoking. 53.1% of them tried smoking at least once. The most common age at an attempt to smoke was 18 years. Males tried smoking earlier than females. 23.1% were active smokers during the study. The age of 18 was the most common time when smoking became regular. Males smoked more frequently than females. There were significant differences between the kind of school and the frequency of smoking. Students of smoking parents smoked more frequently than those of non-smoking ones. Most smokers (80%) were aware of detrimental effects of addict and declared a will to quit smoking. We conclude that a substantial percentage of Polish students smoke. Anti-tobacco prevention must be started early, before the age of 18 and continued up to 21.

Concentration of matrix metalloproteinase-9 in serum of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a degree of airway obstruction and disease progression

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is chronic inflammation leading to irreversible airway obstruction. Previous studies showed increased metalloproteinases (MMP) level, especially MMP-9, as a sign of local inflammation. Up-to-date, only a few studies estimated the MMP-9 serum concentration in COPD with respect to correlation with systemic inflammation. The aim of the present study was to estimate the MMP-9 serum concentration in COPD and to evaluate the correlation between MMP-9 and a degree of airway obstruction in COPD. Twenty three COPD patients and 23 healthy controls were enrolled. In both groups spirometry was performed. MMP-9 concentration in sera taken from both groups was studied using ELISA. We found that COPD patients had increased serum MMP-9 concentration compared with the control group (P=0.0005). In the COPD group, the MMP-9 levels were negatively correlated with FEV1 (P=0.01) and FEV1/FVC (P=0.0002). In conclusion, the results suggest that MMP-9 plays an important role in systemic inflammation in COPD. Higher MMP-9 serum concentration is connected with higher airway obstruction and disease progression.