Acquired haemophilia: dynamic whole blood coagulation utilized to guide haemostatic therapy

Acquired haemophilia is a rare bleeding disorder caused by autoimmune antibodies interacting with factor VIII (FVIII) or factor IX. Anticipating a high degree of heterogeneity amongst cases, we recently initiated systematic recording of whole blood (WB) coagulation dynamic profiles using our recently developed thrombelastographic method employing very small amounts of tissue factor for activation. Six newly diagnosed patients with acquired haemophilia A in our University Hospital were investigated with the purpose to characterize the WB clotting phenotypes in each patient, as well as inspecting the ex vivo and in vivo response to supplementation with various haemostatic agents. Our results show a striking heterogeneity in patients WB clotting profiles, each patient having a particular pattern and an individual type of response to bypassing agents. Profiles in some of patients resembled severe haemophilia A, even if there was a measurable residual FVIII:C activity while others were more similar moderate-to-mild haemophilia. In one case the profile was very close to normal. Each patient seemed to respond individually to bypassing agents. WB clotting profiles assisted us in selecting an optimal treatment modality in each case and whenever possible, we compared the clinical effects of the treatment selected with the appearance of the WB clotting pattern. In one patient, the ex vivo response to FVIII looked promising, and a approximately 200 IU kg-1 per 24 h high-dose programme nearly normalized the clotting profile in 2-week time. Our preliminary small series of data should be concluded with caution. However, it seems that WB clotting profile studies at baseline, with ex vivo addition of haemostasis promoting agents, and during treatment may hold the potential to predict the success of treatment.