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Alcohol, coagulation and fibrinolysis
H F Hendriks1, M S van der Gaag
1TNO-Nutrition and Food Research Institute, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Despite the solid evidence for thrombosis playing a key role in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, identifying specific haemostatic risk factors for CHD has been difficult except for fibrinogen. Excessive alcohol consumption clearly affects platelet function. Moderate alcohol consumption may affect several haemostatic factors, including fibrinogen concentration, platelet aggregability and the fibrinolytic factors tissue-type plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor. These changes support the hypothesis that moderate alcohol beneficially affects the haemostatic balance in a way that decreases the risk of CHD mortality.
Despite the solid evidence for thrombosis playing a key role in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, identifying specific haemostatic risk factors for CHD has been difficult except for fibrinogen. Excessive alcohol consumption clearly affects platelet function. Moderate alcohol consumption may affect several haemostatic factors, including fibrinogen concentration, platelet aggregability and the fibrinolytic factors tissue-type plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor. These changes support the hypothesis that moderate alcohol beneficially affects the haemostatic balance in a way that decreases the risk of CHD mortality.