Smoking, von Willebrand factor and ADAMTS-13 in healthy males.

While von Willebrand factor (vWF) has been reported to be elevated in smokers, there are no reports on the effects of smoking on its cleaving protease ADAMTS-13, particularly in subjects of Arab ethnicity. This study was conducted to determine the effects of smoking on vWF and ADAMTS-13 antigen and activity levels in Arab males. Venous blood samples from 80 smoking (at rest) and 80 non-smoking healthy males were collected after asking subjects to fast and refrain from smoking for 8 hours.