MILD HAEMORRAGIC MANIFESTATIONS: HOW OFTEN ARE THEY?

Makris PE, Gerotjiafas G, Constantinidis C,Xanthopoulos V, Zdoukos T, Gerotjiafas A,MakrisS 

Thrombosis and Haemostasis Unit , AHEPA University Hospital, Thessaloniki, GREECE.

Research on the field of mild haemorragic tendency (eg. mild von Willebrand disease "vWD") as well as the assessment of their incidence in general population has been always an important goal for every relative laboratory.

For this reason we' ve studied the incidence of "vWD" by testing upon 1325 individuals for the following factors: a) Ristocetin Cofactor, RC, b) von Willebrand Factor Related Antigen "vWFR:Ag" and c) FVIII coagulant activity "FVIII:C".

Methods: i) for RC : a quantitative assessment based on the use of Aggregometer , ii) for vWFR:Ag : Laurel immunoelectrophoresis and iii) for FVIII:C a method using chromogenic substrate (CTS Behring).

Results: A) 214  persons (16.1 %)  referred mild haemorragic symptoms (rhinorrhagia, hematuria, menorrhagia, etc), B) 97 persons (7.3%) were found to have FVIII:C levels < 65 %, C) 55 persons (4.7 %) were found to have RC levels< 65 % , D) 60 persons (5.1 %) were found to have vWFR:Ag levels < 65 % and E) 32 persons (2.4 %) were found to have all three factors tested under our established limits.

Although our study is still on process it is obvious that mild haemorragic diseases are not very rare.