Association of Pulmonary Functions with Motor and Sensory Nerve Conduction Study in Smokers

Jyoti Arora; Namrata Dubey; Anjulika Mehta; S K Sadawarte; Jyotsna Gumashta; Amit Mehta

doi:10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_666_25

Association of Pulmonary Functions with Motor and Sensory Nerve Conduction Study in Smokers

J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2025 Sep;17(Suppl 3):S2512-S2514. doi: 10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_666_25. Epub 2025 May 16.

Authors

Jyoti Arora¹, Namrata Dubey¹, Anjulika Mehta², S K Sadawarte³, Jyotsna Gumashta⁴, Amit Mehta⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology, NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.
² Department of Physiology, Chhindwara Institute of Medical Sciences, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India.
³ Department of Physiology, Mansarovar Medical College, Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, India.
⁴ Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
⁵ Department of Anatomy, Chhindwara Institute of Medical Sciences, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Background: The tobacco epidemic is one of the greatest hazards to public health that the world has ever encountered.

Objective: To evaluate correlation of neuropathy with advanced airflow obstruction due to chronic smoking.

Materials and methods: This research was conducted on 40 healthy male smokers and 40 healthy nonsmokers. Pulmonary function test was performed in all subjects with computerized spirometer (Spiro Excel-software version 1.1), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), peak expiratory flow rate, FEV1/FVC were recorded. Nerve conduction studies were performed using Neuroperfect Machine-"EMG, NCV, EP-Medicaid Machine 2000." Both the upper limbs and both lower limbs were tested for motor and sensory nerves study.

Results and conclusion: Frank neuropathy is not observed in healthy adult male smokers, but the dysfunction of peripheral nerves is observed and dysfunction increases as the pulmonary functions deteriorate. It was concluded that long before the emergence of clinical neuropathy, the deterioration in nerves and even lung functions could be diagnosed earlier by electrophysiological studies.

Keywords: FEV1; FEV1/FVC; FVC; PEFR; neuropathy; smokers.