Hemorrhagic Diseases

Abstract

Although the title of this paper is hemorrhagic diseases I will limit myself to the most frequent congenital disorders of blood coagulation, classic hemophilia (A; factor VIII deficiency), Christmas disease (hemophilia B; factor IX deficiency) and von Willebrand’s disease. The clinical picture of the hemophilias correlates with the level of the clotting factor in the patient’s plasma (<1% severe, 1–5% moderately severe, 5–25% mild and 25–40% subhemophilia). In von Willebrand’s disease important parameters for clinical severity are bleeding time, factor VIII activity level and von Willebrand factor concentration (measured as factor VIII related antigen and ristocetin cofactor activity).