Hemophilia is a rare condition that affects mostly male children. The gravity of this health condition can be quite overwhelming. Therefore, a proper diagnosis and treatment of hemophilia are much needed to stop the uncontrolled bleeding, pain, and swelling. In case family members carry this condition, the diagnosis must be considered after the birth to rule out any possibility of the onset of the condition.
To start with hemophilia diagnosis and treatment, family member’s history must be taken into consideration such as bleeding, any injury or surgery. In the case of suspicions, a sample of blood is tested right after the birth from the umbilical cord and this is carefully planned in advance. This diagnosis is to find out the level of clotting factors including VIII (8) and IX (9). In case of low levels, the baby is tested again as he gets older to check the progress of this health condition. So if there are no family members involved and still the newborn is diagnosed with hemophilia, the test is conducted basis if the penis bleeds constantly after circumcision, bleeding continues after drawing blood, bleeding in the head post difficult surgery and any unusual bruises on the body.
The following diagnosis is ideally a part of the protocol that is generally followed:
1. Complete Blood Count
This screening test is part of the hemophilia diagnosis and treatment procedure and it aims to measure the hemoglobin count, size and number of red blood cells. Also, white blood cell types and platelets are looked for while the tests are conducted. In general, the CBC is normal for hemophilia patients like any other person. However, in case of severe bleeding, the red blood cells need a constant watch.
2. Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT) test
This test objective is to understand how long the blood takes to clot and measure the clotting level factors. This test helps to get a clear picture of clotting time and know if the patient is hemophilia A or B.
3. Prothrombin Time test
This test as a part of the diagnosis also tests the time blood takes to clot and clotting the ability of factors.
4. Fibrinogen test
This checks the patient’s ability to form a clot and is also conducted with a blood clotting test.
5. DNA test
A DNA test is used to understand if there are any mutations that have caused hemophilia.
6. Blood clotting test
Clotting factor test is to determine levels of clotting factors VIII or IX and understand if the condition is mild, severe and moderate.
To understand the diagnosis better, a patient with 5% to 30% of clotting factors is a case of mild hemophilia. In the case of 1-5% of clotting factors, moderate hemophilia is the ideal situation. With less than 1%of normal clotting factors, severe hemophilia is generally the condition. No matter what the results are, treatment must be started immediately to avoid any further complications such as joint damage, deep internal bleeding and neurological symptoms.