BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is an important modifiable cardiovascular risk factor and pathophysiological mechanisms may include a stiff vascular tree. We studied the effect of chronic cigarette smoking on arterial stiffness in Korean subjects. METHODS: We compared subjectives (n=1738) aged 18 to 80 years (851 females) classified as current smokers (n=514), and nonsmokers (n=1224) in outpatient cardiovascular department in our hospital. Measurements included arterial stiffness, assessed as pulse wave velocity (PWV) (VP-2000, Colins, Japan) in random manner. RESULTS: Male was predominant (96.3% vs 29.1% years, p<0.01) in smokers. We observed that smoker are higher age (61짹10 vs 56짹12 year, p<0.01). In laboratory analysis, smokers was higher in triglyceride (180.4짹107.2 vs 144.4짹100.8 mg/dL) and high sensitive C reactive protein (hsCRP) (3.01짹3.56 vs 1.81짹1.95 mg/dL, p<0.01), but not NT-pro B type nitriuretic paptide (209.1짹281.4 vs 156.1짹197.5 pg/mL, p=NS). Current smokers had significantly higher hfPWV compared with nonsmokers (1038짹314.4 vs 966짹276.1 cm/sec, p<0.01). There was a linear relationship between smoking status and PWV (p<0.01), even after adjusting for age, sex, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and body mass index. But, ankle-brachial index was not different in two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic tobacco smoking is associated with arterial stiffness in subjects of a wide age range in Korea.