REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Quitting smoking is associated with a substantial reduction in risk of all-cause mortality among patients with CHD .
This 36 % risk reduction appears substantial compared with other secondary preventive therapies such as cholesterol lowering which have received greater attention in recent years .
The risk reduction associated with quitting smoking seems consistent regardless of differences between the studies in terms of index cardiac events , age , sex , country , and time period .
BACKGROUND Although the importance of smoking as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is beyond doubt , the speed and magnitude of risk reduction when a smoker with coronary heart disease quits are still subjects of debate .
OBJECTIVES To estimate the magnitude of risk reduction when a patient with CHD stops smoking .
Effect of cigarette smoking on survival of patients with angiographically documented coronary artery disease. Report from the CASS registry.
Through a multicenter registry of patients in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study , we prospect ively evaluated morbidity and mortality in 4,165 smokers with angiographically proved coronary artery disease , 2,675 of whom continued to smoke and 1,490 of whom quit .  At five years , mortality ( adjusted by Cox analysis for baseline differences ) was 22 % for those who continued smoking and 15 % for quitters . The relative risk ( also from the Cox analysis ) for mortality in continuers vs quitters was 1.55 ( 95 % confidence interval , 1.29 to 1.85 ) . The adverse effect of smoking mainly took the form of higher frequencies of myocardial infa rct ion -- associated death and sudden death : the frequencies of these events during follow-up in continuers vs quitters were 7.9 % vs 4.4 % for myocardial infa rct ion -- associated death and 2.8 % vs 1.5 % for sudden death . This study supports the recommendation that patients with coronary artery disease should stop smoking
REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Quitting smoking is associated with a substantial reduction in risk of all-cause mortality among patients with CHD .
This 36 % risk reduction appears substantial compared with other secondary preventive therapies such as cholesterol lowering which have received greater attention in recent years .
The risk reduction associated with quitting smoking seems consistent regardless of differences between the studies in terms of index cardiac events , age , sex , country , and time period .
BACKGROUND Although the importance of smoking as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is beyond doubt , the speed and magnitude of risk reduction when a smoker with coronary heart disease quits are still subjects of debate .
OBJECTIVES To estimate the magnitude of risk reduction when a patient with CHD stops smoking .