RADIOLOGIC EVALUATION OF PROPHYLAXIS IN SEVERE HAEMOPHILIA

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Abstract
The effect of prophylactic treatment of severe hemophilia A and B was evaluated with a recently described radiologic score system for assessing the severity of arthropathy. The severity of the arthropathy was assessed in 50 patients with severe hemophilia receiving prophylaxis with factor VIII or IX (25-30 U factor VIII or IX/kg body wt at 4- to 7-day intervals) and in 9 in whom the condition was complicated by inhibitors and who were not receiving prophylaxis. The score values found in a recent investigation of the natural course of hemophilia served as controls in the evaluation of the effect of the prophylaxis. In the group with severe hemophilia receiving prophylaxis, changes appeared only exceptionally in joints not affected already before the prophylaxis. The course of the arthropathy and its severity according to age did not vary to any noteworthy extent from that in the control group with moderate hemophilia. In the cases complicated by inhibitors, the joints were most often worse than those in the control group with severe hemophilia. Prophylaxis apparently has a considerable effect on the course of the arthropathy and the prophylaxis should be instituted at an early stage of the disease, when the joints are still unaffected.

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