Acta haematologica
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Safety and usefulness of intravenous iron sucrose in the management of preoperative anemia in patients with menorrhagia: a phase IV, open-label, prospective, randomized study.
The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy, safety and achievement of the target hemoglobin level (Hb >or=10 g/dl) in patients with preoperative anemia due to menorrhagia who received intravenous iron sucrose compared with oral iron protein succinylate for anemia management. ⋯ Preoperative intravenous iron sucrose administration is more effective than oral iron and is as safe as oral iron therapy in the correction of preoperative anemia due to menorrhagia.
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Acquired von Willebrand disease (aVWD) occurs in association with a variety of underlying disorders, most frequently in lymphoproliferative and myeloproliferative disorders, other malignancies, and cardiovascular disease. aVWD is a complex and heterogeneous defect with a multifactorial etiology and the pathophysiologic mechanisms remain unclear in many cases. Assays for anti-factor VIII (FVIII)/von Willebrand factor (VWF) activities often yield negative results although antibodies may be present in autoimmune disease and some lymphoproliferative disorders. Functional assays of VWF in patients' plasma and particularly in heart valve disease, VWF multimer analysis are important for aVWD diagnosis. ⋯ Management of bleeding in aVWD relies mainly on desmopressin, FVIII/VWF concentrates and high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin. The half-life of VWF may be very short, and in bleeding episodes high doses of FVIII/VWF concentrates at short intervals may be necessary even when high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin was applied before. Since the optimal treatment strategy has not yet been defined for aVWD of different etiology, controlled multicenter trials aiming at the development of standardized treatment protocols are urgently needed.
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Guidelines and recommendations for the acute and prophylactic treatment of bleeding in von Willebrand disease (VWD) patients with von Willebrand factor (VWF)/factor VIII (FVIII) concentrates should be based on the analysis of the content of VWF/FVIII concentrates and on pharmacokinetic studies in patients with different severity of VWD (type 1, type 2 or type 3). The VW/FVIII concentrates should be assessed using the parameters FVIII:coagulant activity (C), VWF:ristocetin cofactor activity (RCo), VWF:collagen binding and VWF multimeric patterns for the presence of large multimers to determine their predicted efficacy and safety in prospective management studies. As the bleeding tendency is moderate in VWD type 2 and severe in type 3 and because the FVIII:C levels are subnormal in type 2 but very low in type 3 VWD patients, new guidelines using VWF:RCo unit dosing for the acute and prophylactic treatment of bleeding episodes are proposed. Such guidelines should be stratified for the severity of bleeding, the type of surgery (minor or major) and also for the bleeding score in either VWD type 1, 2 or 3.
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Autosomal dominant von Willebrand disease (VWD) type 1/2E is a quantitative/qualitative defect in the von Willebrand factor (VWF) caused by heterozygous cysteine and non-cysteine mutations in the D3 domain of the VWF gene and results in a secretion-multimerization-clearance defect in mutant VWF with the loss of large VWF multimers not due to proteolysis. The multimers of patients with dominant VWD type 1/2E due to mutations in the D3 domain show an aberrant triplet structure with lack of outer bands but with pronounced inner bands of the triplet structure combined with a relative decrease in large multimers reflecting heterozygosity for multimerization defects. There is a good response to desmopressin (DDAVP) followed by rapid clearance of VWF:antigen (Ag), factor VIII coagulant activity (FVIII:C) and VWF:ristocetin cofactor activity (RCo) as the main cause of VWD type 1 or 2 with typical 2E multimeric pattern (VWD type 1/2E). ⋯ Cysteine mutations in exons 38, 40, 42 and 43 (D4, B1-B3 and C1 domain), show smeary patterns (either smf or sm), with the presence of large VWF multimers and a laboratory phenotype of mild VWD type 1 with variable penetrance of bleeding manifestations. Recent studies showed that the ratio of VWF propeptide (pp) to VWF:Ag can be used to predict a shorter than normal half-life for VWF:Ag. There is a strong inverse correlation between rapid clearance of VWF:Ag after DDAVP and increased VWFpp/Ag ratios >10 in VWD type 1 Vicenza, and >2 in VWD type 1/2E but normal or slightly increased (1-<2) VWFpp/Ag ratios in mild-type VWD due to nonsense or missense mutations in the D1, D2, D4, B and C domains.