Diet and Thrombus Formation: Quantitative Studies Using an Extracorporeal Circulation in Pigs.

Although there has been widespread interest in the relationship of diet to atherosclerosis and its complications, much less attention has been paid to the effect of diet on thrombus formation. For the most part, exploration of this problem has been indirect; in the first place, it has been supposed that in vitro tests of coagulation are good measures of the coagulant activity of the blood and thrombus formation; and in the second, it has been supposed that coagulant activity in vivo reflects tendency to form thrombi. In a previous study (1), we attempted to circumvent the former supposition by directing our attention to platelet survival, which can be studied in vivo in man and in experimental animals. The ideal method of obviating the latter supposition would be to devise methods of quantitating thrombus formation in the intact animal. Semiquantitative grading systems have been used by some investigators. As yet, however, no satisfactory, precise quantitative method has been devised. Connor and Poole (2) and Connor (3), recognizing that movement of the blood, particularly in the arterial circulation, may be an important factor in thrombus formation, used Chandler's apparatus (4) to study the effect of various fatty acids on thrombus formation. In their experiments, citrated blood was mixed with the fatty acid for one minute. It was then recalcified inside the apparatus, and the time for the appearance of clotting was noted. We have described elsewhere a method for quan-