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

In the seventh national voluntary cross-sectional survey (in 1999) of Finnish patients with haemophilia A or B, type 3 von Willebrand disease or factor XIII deficiency, a plasma sample was received from 193 patients (67%). The 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 with hepatitis C seropositivity. No new seroconversions were detected among the haemophiliacs or patients with type 3 von Willebrand disease when compared with the last two surveys in 1993 and 1996, and there was no seroconversion in sole users of solvent/detergent-treated factor products. Currently, 32% of the patients use prophylactic factor treatment as their principal mode of therapy, particularly the younger patients with severe forms of the bleeding diseases.