Blood coagulation after a fat meal.

The influence of meals on the coagulability of blood was studied in experiments on 20 men with parallel nonfed controls. The whole blood clotting time in siliconized tubes was not altered by a low-fat meal or by continued absence of a meal, but it was significantly shortened after a meal containing 100 Gm. of butterfat. The degree of lipemia did not determine the degree of shortening. There was no important effect on prothrombin time of the fatty meal as contrasted with the nonfatty meal or with no meal. Heparin tolerance results were difficult to interpret.