A study of 46 patients with acquired haemophilia A in Taiwan finds elevated LDH level and mucosal bleedings associated with reduced response to immunosuppressive therapy

Acquired Hemophilia A in Aged People: A Systematic Review of Case Reports and Case Series

Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare disease that requires urgent management. Currently, there is no consensus regarding optimal management in aged people. This systematic review aimed to describe diagnosis, clinical features, management, and endpoints in population aged 65 years or over with AHA. A literature search up to and including 31 May 2017 was performed in Medline, Embase, and Scopus. The search strategy on article titles comprised the following terms: "acquired" AND ("hemophilia A" OR "haemophilia A"). Filters were applied for age (65 years or older), publication type (case reports and case series), and studies including human beings only. There was no language restriction in the search strategy. Studies with no data on immunosuppressive therapy, and studies in other languages than English or French were excluded. Patient-level and study-level information was extracted. In total, 270 studies were identified by the literature search. After exclusion of duplicates, and studies presenting exclusion criteria, 80 articles including 159 cases were included in the final review. These 159 cases were 76.1 ± 7.2 years old, and were mainly men (64%). There is wide variety in the therapies used to eradicate the Factor VIII autoantibody, and efficacy is difficult to assess. The majority of patients with AHA receive immunosuppressants. Mortality is high, and likely depends on the rapidity of diagnosis and implementation of adequate management and monitoring.

Younger age at presentation of acquired haemophilia A in Asian countries: a single-centre study and systematic review

Acquired haemophilia A is a rare bleeding disorder caused by autoantibodies against factor VIII (FVIII). There is a scarcity of acquired haemophilia A studies from Asian countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical characteristics and outcomes of acquired haemophilia A among Asian populations. Data were collected from a retrospective case series and combined with a systematic review. The case series included all patients with acquired haemophilia A from 1999 to 2012 at Chiang Mai University Hospital. The systematic review searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases for relevant keywords. A total of 111 patients were reviewed in this study (including 26 patients from the present series). There were 56 male (50.5%) and 55 female (49.5%) patients. We compared the demographic data with ECAH2 and UKHCDO studies. The weighted mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 58.10 (16.96) years compared with 75.70 (14.47) years in the European series (absolute difference 17.6 years, 95% confidence interval [CI] 14.20–20.99, P = 0.025). The mean (SD) FVIII activity was 2.97 (3.81) IU dL(−1) and the mean (SD) FVIII inhibitor titre was 26.35 (399.16) BU mL(−1). Fifty-six per cent of the patients underwent immunosuppression with steroids alone. The pool complete remission rate was comparable to the European studies, at 67.2% vs. 66.6% respectively (absolute difference 0.7, 95% CI 0.18 to 1.22, P = 0.99). This study reveals a novel finding of younger age at diagnosis of acquired haemophilia A among Asian patients.