Diagnosis and Treatment of Hemophilia

Diagnosis and Treatment of Hemophilia

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder where a person lacks the ability to have their blood being clotted. They lack the blood clotting proteins and will need assistance from treatment or by ingesting certain medicines. If clotting proteins aren’t available, this could lead to excessive bleeding. There are different types of clotting and in order to prevent excess bleeding, these factors work with platelets during therapy. Studies by the World Federation of Hemophilia suggest that one in 10,000 people inherit hemophilia.

The easiest symptom of hemophilia is that people with this condition bleed profusely. They also get internal bleeding which leads to organ failure if clotting proteins aren’t present enough for the action. This condition is life-threatening. There are three types of hemophilia -A, B and C. Hemophilia A is the most common type than the others. National Heart, Lung and Blood institute trusted source suggests 8 out of 10 people suffering from hemophilia A. B and C are rare types of hemophilia conditions and people suffering from these do not have spontaneous bleeding, instead, they suffer from a hemorrhage on later stages.

Diagnosis of the symptoms of hemophilia
Blood tests and family history is the first step to diagnosing hemophilia. The patient’s medical history is asked if they are suspected of hemophilia so that the cause can be identified and worked on first itself. Complete body and blood checkup is done as well to rule out any other disorders. Blood tests help to identify the kind of hemophilia and the severity of the type. Pregnant women with hemophilia will have to conduct a complete checkup at the 10th week of their pregnancy itself.

Treatment for hemophilia
Once the symptoms of hemophilia are diagnosed, the treatment procedure should start at the right time. The following are the options to treat hemophilia.

Replacement therapy
The first treatment is replacement therapy where clotting factors like VII (for Hemophilia A) or IX (for Hemophilia B) are dripped or injected into a patient that lacks these clotting factors due to genetics or other reasons.

Recombinant clotting
The other treatment for hemophilia according to its severity and symptoms is recombinant clotting. This is considered helpful for a lot of them because it reduces the risk of infections transmitted due to human blood transfusion. Next is prophylactic therapy where a patient needs to do continuous replacement therapy to avoid bleeding. Patients suffering from Hemophilia A need this type of treatment.

On-demand therapy
This type of treatment for hemophilia is given to patients once the bleeding starts and goes to an uncontrollable mode. There are consequences to these therapies but that comes as a part and parcel because some antibodies can be developed and start against the treatment mode. This can reduce the immunity of your body and cause other viral infections. Another con to not being able to give the treatment at the right time would cause damage to joints, muscles or any parts of the body. The medication includes desmopressin, a man-made hormone that stimulates a particular clotting factor, and other antifibrinolytic medicines that help to maintain the balance of clotting factors instead of breaking it down. Rixubis another medicine is a laboratory man-made blood that is a purified form of the clotting factor protein mainly given for type B hemophilia patients.