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Prenatal diagnosis of haemophilia: our experience of 44 cases

  • Federica Zarrilli , Veronica Sanna , Rosaria Ingino , Rita Santamaria , Angiola Rocino , Antonio Coppola , Giovanni Di Minno EMAIL logo and Giuseppe Castaldo
Published/Copyright: July 16, 2013
Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 51 Issue 12

Abstract

Background: Haemophilia A and B (HA, HB) are the most frequent X-linked bleeding diseases; two-thirds of cases are severe.

Methods: We counselled 51 couples for prenatal diagnosis (PD) of haemophilia. In 7/51 (13.7%) cases, the couple decided not to undergo PD because counselling revealed that they were carriers of a mild form of the disease, while we performed 44 PD for severe HA (36 cases) or HB (8 cases). The indication for PD was a haemophilic child (30/44, 68.2%) or an affected family member (12/44, 27.3%); in two cases the non-carrier mother of isolated haemophilic patients requested PD because of the risk of mosaicism.

Results: We completed PD in 43/44 cases; in one case, the prenatal sample was contaminated by maternal DNA; however, molecular analysis revealed the female sex of the foetus. We performed PD for 16 of the 36 couples at risk of HA (44.4%) by analysing the intron (IVS)22 inversion; in 1/36 cases (2.8%) the mother had the IVS1 inversion, and in 8/36 (22.2%) the family mutation was identified by sequencing; in 11/36 (30.6%) cases the family mutation was unknown, and PD was performed by linkage (no recombination nor uninformative cases occurred). For HB, in 6/8 (75.0%) cases, PD was performed by DHPLC or by sequencing; in 2/8 cases we tested intragenic markers (again with no cases of recombination or uninformative families).

Conclusions: PD in well-equipped laboratories, and multidisciplinary counselling are an aid to planning reproductive and early therapeutic strategies in families with severe haemophilia.

Keywords: amniocentesis; chorionic villi; F8C ; F9 ; haemophilia; prenatal diagnosis
Corresponding author: Giovanni Di Minno, MD, PhD, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Chirurgia, Università di Napoli Federico II, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy, E-mail:

Grants from the Regione Campania (DGRC 1901/09) are gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to Jean Ann Gilder (Scientific Communication srl) for editing the text.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

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Received: 2012-12-19
Accepted: 2013-03-08
Published Online: 2013-07-16
Published in Print: 2013-12-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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  29. More discussion on journal impact factor
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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2013-0205
Keywords for this article
amniocentesis; chorionic villi; F8C; F9; haemophilia; prenatal diagnosis

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Letters to the Editor
  2. The addition of MESNA in vitro prolongs prothrombin time similar to N-acetyl cysteine
  3. Detection of unknown β-thalassemia cases from atypical HbA1c chromatograms
  4. Analytical study of a new turbidimetric assay for urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) determination
  5. The rare bipolar-contracted red cell significance and correlation with red cell volume
  6. Howell-Jolly body interference in reticulocyte counts
  7. PBMC expressed adiponectin mRNA is predictive of survival in patients with gastric cancer
  8. Comparison study of two commercially available methods for the determination of infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept and anti-drug antibody levels
  9. Development and validation of a rapid and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography method for methadone quantification in human plasma and saliva
  10. Reply to Ruiz-Argüello et al.: Comparison study of two commercially available methods for the determination of infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept and anti-drug antibody levels
  11. Still more discussion on the journal impact factor
  12. The order of draw, myth or science
  13. Masthead
  14. Masthead
  15. Editorial
  16. Multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity at work: the prenatal diagnosis
  17. Research Articles
  18. Prenatal diagnosis of inherited diseases: 20 years’ experience of an Italian Regional Reference Centre
  19. Prenatal diagnosis of haemoglobinopathies: our experience of 523 cases
  20. Prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis: an experience of 181 cases
  21. Prenatal diagnosis of haemophilia: our experience of 44 cases
  22. Prenatal molecular diagnosis of inherited neuromuscular diseases: Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy type 1 and spinal muscular atrophy
  23. Editorials
  24. Journal impact factor: the debate continues
  25. Estimation of uncertainty in measurements in the clinical laboratory
  26. Review
  27. Searching for genes involved in hypertension development in special populations: children and pre-eclamptic women. Where are we standing now?
  28. Opinion Paper
  29. More discussion on journal impact factor
  30. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  31. Category-specific uncertainty modeling in clinical laboratory measurement processes
  32. The order of draw: myth or science?
  33. Planned variation in preanalytical conditions to evaluate biospecimen stability in the National Children’s Study (NCS)
  34. Longitudinal evaluation of thyroid autoimmunity and function in pregnant Korean women
  35. Evaluation of the N Latex free light chain assay in the diagnosis and monitoring of AL amyloidosis
  36. Identification of an important potential confound in CSF AD studies: aliquot volume
  37. Cancer Diagnostics
  38. Double heterozygosity in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Italian family
  39. Quantification of EGFR autoantibodies in the amplification phenomenon of HER2 in breast cancer
  40. Diabetes
  41. SAA1 genetic polymorphisms are associated with plasma glucose concentration in non-diabetic subjects
  42. Acknowledgment
  43. Acknowledgment
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