Tea drinking and haemostasis: a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study in free-living subjects

The hypothesis that tea drinking may protect against coronary heart disease (CHD) through effects on clotting as measured by plasma fibrinogen, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) was tested in 65 healthy volunteers (31 men and 34 women; aged 20-74 years) in a randomized, blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study lasting 10 weeks (run-in phase 2 weeks, tea and placebo phases 4 weeks). During the placebo phase, intakes of milk, sugar, water and caffeine were matched to those in the tea phase during which 6 mugs of tea were drunk daily. Compliance with tea intake was measured by marking tea bags with p-aminobenzoic acid and measuring recovery in 24-hour urine collections. The mean +/- SD fibrinogen level, PAI-1 activity and tPA antigen level at baseline of 2.91 +/- 0.81 g/l, 7.9 +/- 5.3 U/ml and 4.76 +/- 2.17 ng/ml, respectively, were in the normal range. No significant differences in these variables between the run-in, tea or placebo phases were observed. The putative protective effect of tea against development of CHD is not mediated through effects of black tea on fibrinogen, tPA or PAI-1.