QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIPS OF URINARY COTININE
LEVELS IN SMOKING DIABETIC PATIENTS
ANA MARIA VLĂSCEANU1, CONSTANTIN PETRARU1, DANIELA BACONI1*, MIHAELA GHICA2, ANDREEA ARSENE3, LĂCRĂMIOARA POPA2, ALINA NICOLAE3, CRISTINA DRĂGOI3, GEORGETA PAVALACHE4
1University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Toxicology, Traian Vuia 6,
Bucharest, Romania
2University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Physical and Colloidal
Chemistry, Traian Vuia 6, Bucharest, Romania
3University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Biochemistry, Traian Vuia 6,
Bucharest, Romania
4”Ovidius” University Constanta, Faculty of Pharmacy, Constanţa, Romania
*corresponding author: daniela_baconi@yahoo.com
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Abstract:
Nowadays, it is recognized the fact that cotinine can serve as a quantification marker of nicotine addiction, as well as for
passive smoking. Several studies reported in the recent literature have emphasized that, in patients with different pathologies,
objective assessment of tobacco use is required, based on biomarkers (e.g. determining cotinine levels in blood or urine) and
not on self-reporting of estimated consumption. To highlight the possible correlations between the concentration of cotinine
and various parameters, such as socio-demographic or smoking related diseases, we have evaluated the urinary cotinine
levels in smoking diabetic patients. The study group consisted of twenty two smoking diabetic patients, evaluated
comparatively with a group of healthy active smokers in terms of age, gender, education level, marital status, occupation,
comorbidities, glycated haemoglobin values, urinary cotinine concentration, nicotine dependence score, duration of tobacco
use, number and characteristics of the smoked cigarettes. Urinary cotinine concentration was determined by an ELISA
(enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method using a commercial kit. Quantitative relationships such as concentration of
cotinine in urine vs. dependence score and duration of tobacco use; vs. dependence score and comorbidities or vs. dependence
score, glycated haemoglobin, and comorbidities were obtained. The predictive power of the proposed mathematical models is
high as the correlation coefficients obtained have values close to unity (R > 0.90). The quantitative relationships between
urinary cotinine concentrations and different parameters evaluated in the study, established using various combinations of
these parameters can predict the cotinine levels in urine, reflecting the biotransformation and urinary excretion of nicotine as
this metabolite.

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