title: Short-term effect of dark chocolate consumption on routine haemostasis testing.
abstract: This experimental study was designed to investigate the sort-term impact of dark chocolate ingestion on routine haemostasis tests in healthy volunteers. The study population consisted in 15 healthy male volunteers who ingested 50 g of 90% cocoa chocolate within 3-5 min. Blood was drawn early in the morning, immediately before chocolate ingestion and 4 h afterwards, for assessment of activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT) and fibrinogen. A significant increase of triglycerides (1.4 ± 0.6 versus 1.0 ± 0.5 mmol/L; p < .001), APTT (32.1 ± 2.2 versus 31.1 ± 2.0 s; p < .001) and PT (9.8 ± 0.5 versus 9.7 ± 0.4 s; p = .008) was observed 4 h after ingestion of dark chocolate, whereas fibrinogen values remained unchanged (2.6 ± 0.5 versus 2.5 ± 0.5 g/L; p = .063). Overall, we observed a mean percentage increase of 3.1% for APTT and 1.2% for PT. These results suggest that dark chocolate intake may have an impact on secondary haemostasis.
authors.affiliation: a Section of Clinical Biochemistry , University of Verona , Verona , Italy.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montagnana
authors.affiliation: a Section of Clinical Biochemistry , University of Verona , Verona , Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Danese
authors.affiliation: a Section of Clinical Biochemistry , University of Verona , Verona , Italy.
authors.forename: Gian Luca
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Salvagno
authors.affiliation: a Section of Clinical Biochemistry , University of Verona , Verona , Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lippi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000069956:Chocolate; D004032:Diet; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000032:analysis; D006487:Hemostasis / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010314:Partial Thromboplastin Time; D011517:Prothrombin Time; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D014280:Triglycerides; D005340:Fibrinogen
keywords: activated partial thromboplastin time; chocolate; haemostasis; prothrombin time; thrombosis