April 17, 2024 is the 36th "World Hemophilia Day", and the theme of the event is "Understanding Bleeding Disorders, Actively Preventing and Treating Bleeding Diseases", aiming to raise the awareness and concern of the whole society about hemophilia and other bleeding diseases, and promote scientific prevention and standardized diagnosis and treatment.
1. What is a bleeding disorder?
Some bleeding disorders present as separate conditions, such as hemophilia, platelet weakness, telangiectasia, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). It is more common to appear with other diseases, such as various secondary hemorrhages, DIC, secondary hyperfibrinolysis, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, etc.
2. How to identify bleeding disorders and achieve early diagnosis and early treatment?
The manifestations of bleeding disorders are often easy to identify, that is, all kinds of abnormal bleeding, including skin purpura, bruising, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, blood in the stool, blood in the urine, and in hemophilia, it is more manifested as intra-articular bleeding, deep muscle hematoma, and various bleeding after surgery, delayed wound healing.
From the simplest blood routine and four coagulation items, to coagulation factor activity, thromboelastography, various correction tests, to hemophilia-related genes and genealogy analysis, select appropriate examination items according to needs, and obtain sufficient diagnostic depth with the minimum examination cost.
Early identification and early intervention can minimize the lesions.
3. How to prevent and treat hemophilia?
Diagnosis of bleeding disorders is made for better prevention and treatment. For example, hemophilia cannot be cured at this stage, and gene therapy that is expected to cure hemophilia is still in the clinical trial stage. However, modern medicine has been able to achieve a higher quality of life for hemophilia patients, and the center of treatment is replacement therapy that injects clotting factors. According to the specific condition, different strategies of supplementing coagulation factors can make patients as close to the life of normal people as possible, especially the advent of long-acting coagulation factors and non-factor drugs, which greatly improves the quality of life of hemophilia patients.
For hemophilia patients or people who carry the gene that causes hemophilia, genetic testing can be used in the first trimester to assess the likelihood of fetal onset, and whether to terminate the pregnancy according to the patient's wishes, or to guide relatively safe pregnancy and delivery measures.
We are committed to ensuring that all patients with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders receive standardized prevention and treatment for a healthier and happier life.
Author: Xu Haiping
Source: Shenyang Red Cross Hospital
Editor: Huang Di
Proofreading: Yang Dongni, Chen Zeming
Preliminary review: Xue Bing
Review: Xu Jiang