Nicotine Replacement Therapy for Cardiac Patients

Cigarette smoking is an important cause of cardiovascular disease, and patients with cardiac disease who stop smoking enjoy a dramatic decrease in the risk of future events, making effective smoking cessation techniques particularly important for this population. Transdermal nicotine has been demonstrated to consistently improve long-term smoking cessation rates, although the safety of its use in patients with cardiac disease has been questioned. It is likely to be less dangerous than smoking because plasma nicotine levels on full dose transdermal delivery systems are lower than those achieved by smoking, and there are many cardiotoxic effects of smoking that are not related to nicotine. There are only limited data on the safety of nicotine replacement therapy in cardiac patients. The TRANSCAP study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial designed to determine the safety and efficacy of transdermal therapy in high risk subjects with cardiac diagnoses.