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- Smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature
death and ill health.
- The treatment or research of smoking-related illness requires
accurate information.
- With increasing social pressure, smokers are increasingly likely
to under-report or deny their smoking habit when questioned, especially
to healthcare professionals.
- There is a growing trend for biochemical tests to verify self-reported
smoking and to quantify nicotine intake.
- Many laboratory tests exist. They mainly rely on the measurement
of nicotine breakdown products in urine, saliva or plasma.
- The most widely accepted biomarker for smoking is cotinine.
- Laboratory testing can be expensive and time consuming.
- The time delay involved means the results are of little value
to the patient.
- Near-patient or point-of-care testing - tests carried out in
the presence of the patient - is an increasing means of providing
clinical important feedback.
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