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Diesel exhaust may impair blood vessel function

Posted on: Monday, 19 December 2005, 20:52 CST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exposure to diesel exhaust fumes appears to interfere with the normal functioning of the body's blood vessels, European investigators report. "These important findings," they say, provide a potential mechanism that links air pollution to the development of blood clots and heart attack.

Although the harmful effects of air pollution on cardiovascular illness and death are well recognized, the mechanisms involved have been unclear.

Dr. Nicholas L. Mills, from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, and colleagues evaluated vascular function in 30 healthy volunteers after they exercised on a stationary bicycle for 1 hour during exposure to fumes from an idling diesel engine. The particulate concentration was maintained at a level encountered in the urban environment. The results were compared with those obtained after breathing normal filtered air.

According to a report in the medical journal Circulation, the expected increase in blood flow in the forearm in response to infused agents that dilate blood vessels was significantly blunted after exposure to diesel exhaust fumes but not after exposure to normal air.

Reduced blood flow could fuel blood clots "that could plausibly result in acute cardiovascular events," Mills and colleagues theorize.

Mills suggests in a press statement that retrofit devices that trap diesel exhaust particles might "reduce pollution exposure and benefit public health."

SOURCE: Circulation December 20, 2005.

Source: REUTERS

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