Diagnosing haemophilia

A diagnosis of haemophilia is one that is made only after careful consideration of the patient’s history and the results of a number of special blood tests looking at the ability of the blood to clot and blood levels of specific clotting factors.

Haemophilia is usually suspected if an individual presents with a history of:

• Easy bruising in early childhood
• Spontaneous bleeding into joints and muscle
• Excessive bleeding after trauma or surgery

Low blood levels of clotting factors VIII and IX indicate the presence of one or other type of haemophilia: haemophilia A (low level of Factor VIII) and haemophilia B (low level of Factor IX).

How low the levels are usually determines how severe the bleeding symptoms may be. For example, someone found to have one third of the normal clotting factor activity will probably only have mild symptoms. You need to have less than 1% of the normal clotting factor activity to be classified as having severe haemophilia.

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