Abstract
Fish oils have shown beneficial effects on various parameters in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the same effects can be demonstrated with a low dose of fish oil concentrate (FOC).
Thirty-nine patients were studied and divided into two groups. Twenty were given 10 g fish oil (group A) and 19 were given 10 g placebo Italian olive oil (group B).
Weekly anginal attacks (AA), weekly glyceryl trinitrate consumption (GTN), exercise tolerance time (ETT), serum triglycerides (ST), platelet aggregation ratio (PAR), and β- thromboglobulin were measured at eight and twelve weeks after start of treatment.
1. The number of anginal attacks recorded by both groups decreased by 41% in group A reaching statistical significance (P < 0.05). No change was observed in group B.
2. GTN consumption decreased in group A (P < 0.05) with no significant change in group B (P: ns).
3. ETT increased significantly in group A eight and twelve weeks after start of treatment (20.6% P < 0.01, 22.6% P < 0.01). A smaller but insignificant increase was observed in group B (P: ns).
4. ST decreased significantly in group A by 22% eight weeks after start of treatment (P < 0.01) and to a lesser degree (11%) twelve weeks after start of treatment (P: ns). In group B, ST slightly increased (P: ns). (continued on next page)
5. No statistically significant change was observed in either group in regard to PAR and β-thromboglobulin (P: ns).
These observations suggest that dietary supplementation with a low dose of FOC may have beneficial effects on the clinical status of patients with CAD. It also seems that this low dose has no impact on platelet function.
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