Key result
Ingestion of flavonoid-rich chocolate for 3 days significantly decreased mean uterine artery pulsatility index (P=0.049) and uterine artery score (P=0.025) in pregnant women.
Why the study?
Does flavonoid-rich chocolate improve uteroplacental blood flow and arterial stiffness in pregnant women with compromised uteroplacental blood flow?
Does flavonoid-rich chocolate improve uteroplacental blood flow and arterial stiffness in pregnant women with compromised uteroplacental blood flow?
Short-term consumption of flavonoid-rich chocolate may improve uteroplacental circulation in pregnant women with compromised blood flow, though it does not appear to affect systemic arterial stiffness.
Should not yet change practice; hypothesis-generating for flavonoid effects on uterine artery resistance in pregnancy.
INTRODUCTION: Dark chocolate has shown beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and might also modulate hypertensive complications in pregnancy and uteroplacental blood flow. Increased uteroplacental resistance is associated with systemic arterial stiffness. We aimed to investigate the short-term effect of flavonoid-rich chocolate on arterial stiffness and Doppler blood flow velocimetry indexes in pregnant women with compromised uteroplacental blood flow. METHODS: Doppler blood flow velocimetry and digital pulse wave analysis (DPA) were performed in 25 women pregnant in the second and third trimesters with uterine artery (UtA) score (UAS) 3-4, before and after 3 days of ingestion of chocolate with high flavonoid and antioxidant contents. UtA pulsatility index (PI), UtA diastolic notching, UAS (semiquantitative measure of PI and notching combined), and umbilical artery PI were calculated, and DPA variables representing central and peripheral maternal arteries were recorded. RESULTS: Mean UtA PI (p = .049) and UAS (p = .025) significantly decreased after chocolate consumption. There were no significant changes in UtA diastolic notching or any DPA indexes of arterial stiffness/vascular tone. CONCLUSION: Chocolate may have beneficial effects on the uteroplacental circulation, but in this pilot study, we could not demonstrate effects on arterial vascular tone as assessed by DPA.
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Wowern et al. (2017) studied compromised uteroplacental blood flow in pregnancy (n=25). flavonoid-rich chocolate vs. baseline (before ingestion) was evaluated on arterial stiffness and Doppler blood flow velocimetry indexes (p=0.049). Ingestion of flavonoid-rich chocolate for 3 days significantly decreased mean uterine artery pulsatility index (P=0.049) and uterine artery score (P=0.025) in pregnant women.
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