Viral markers and use of factor products among Finnish patients with bleeding disorders

In the seventh national voluntary cross-sectional survey (in 1999) of Finni sh patients with haemophilia A or B, type 3 von Willebrand disease or facto r XIII deficiency, a plasma sample was received from 193 patients (67%). Th e samples were tested for hepatitis B and C, human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV) and human T-cell leukaemia virus (HTLV) antibodies. Fifty-one percent of the patients were hepatitis C antibody positive and 34% hepatitis B core antibody positive. None of the patients had antibodies against HIV or HTLV . Eighteen percent of the patients had an elevated alanine aminotransferase activity. Abnormal alanine aminotransferase was significantly associated w ith hepatitis C seropositivity. No new seroconversions were detected among the haemophiliacs or patients with type 3 von Willebrand disease when compa red with the last two surveys in 1993 and 1996, and there was no seroconver sion in sole users of solvent/detergent-treated factor products. Currently, 32% of the patients use prophylactic factor treatment as their principal m ode of therapy, particularly the younger patients with severe forms of the bleeding diseases.