Functional evaluation identified changes in gait pattern in patients with severe and moderate haemophilia, compared with normal values. Gait analysis may be a useful tool to facilitate early diagnosis of joint damage, prevent haemophilic arthropathy, design a personalized rehabilitative treatment and monitor functional status over time.

No abstract

Life expectancy for persons with hemophilia (PWH) has considerably increased in the last decades as a direct result of the availability of modern therapies to control the clotting defect. Because their life expectancy now matches that of the general population, PWH are experiencing age-related comorbidities, such as, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, renal diseases, sexuality issues, malignancies, and neurologic problems, that until recently have been rarely seen in this group of patients. In this article, we present a summary of the current knowledge on the aging PWH along with the clinical approaches that may be integrated into the routine comprehensive care of these patients for preventing, diagnosing, and monitoring age-related comorbidities. In general, patients with and without hemophilia should receive similar care, with close collaboration between the physician treating PWH and the specialty expert treating the comorbid disease.

The management of patients who require temporary interruption of vitamin K antagonists is a common clinical problem, affecting an estimated 400 000 patients per year in Europe and North America. Managing such patients is challenging because of the lack of randomized trials assessing different perioperative anticoagulation management strategies and inconsistent recommendations from consensus groups. Recent non-randomized trials have helped to estimate the risks for arterial thromboembolism and bleeding with bridging anticoagulation involving low-molecular-weight heparin. The objectives of this review are to describe bridging anticoagulation and how it may be used with a short-acting heparin, such as unfractionated heparin or low-molecular-weight heparin, to discuss preoperative patient management, focusing on risk stratification for thromboembolic events and interruption of vitamin K antagonist therapy, and to discuss postoperative patient management, focusing on surgery-related bleeding risk and the resumption of bridging anticoagulation and vitamin K antagonist therapy.

Objectives: To study the incidence of bleeding complications during thromboprophylaxis with dalteparin in patients with acute medical illness and renal failure. Design: Prospective, cohort study. Setting: Community Hospital. Main outcome: The primary safety outcome was the incidence of major and minor bleeding, while the primary efficacy outcomes were objectively verified symptomatic DVT, pulmonary embolism, and objectively verified asymptomatic DVT detected on routine compression ultrasonography. Secondary outcomes included anti-Xa heparin levels. Patients: 56 consecutives patients (29 males, age 77.86±10.27 y, 27 females, age 84.60±6,78 y) admitted with acute medical illness were considered for the study. Eligible patients were 18 years or older and had none of the following: hepatic failure (prothrombin time <50%), platelet count <100.000/ml, chronic use of warfarin, or an ongoing requirement for anticoagulation. Two doses of dalteparin were prescribed as dictated by a venous thromboembolism risk score. 44 patients judged to be at high risk (age >75 y, 44 of 56, 78%, active cancer, 5 of 56, 8.9%, previous venous thromboembolism, 1 of 56, 1.8%) received a dose of 5.000 IU daily; the other 12 received 2.500 IU daily. Dalteparin was given at 8 am for 6 days. The timing of anti-Xa activity determination and of compression ultrasound examination of leg veins is shown in table 1. Methods Results: there was 1 case (1 of 56, 1.8%) of nose bleeding at the third day of treatment in a patient with moderate renal failure. The bled was easily stopped. None of the following variables: dose of dalteparin, age, sex, creatinine clearance, and anti-Xa activity when entered in a regression model were able to predict the hemorrhagic complication. There were no cases of venous thromboembolism. Though, peak anti-Xa activity was higher in patients with marked renal impairment, it never reached therapeutic levels (>0.5 IU/mL). anti-Xa activity at day 6 Conclusions: The modest (and not significant) increase in anti-Xa activity in patients with reduced creatinine clearance was not associated with a clinically apparent risk of bleeding. Thromboprophylaxis with dalteparin appears safe even in acutely ill medical patients with renal failure. day 0 Creatinine Clearance anti-Xa activity before Dalteparin CUS day 6 Creatinine Clearance anti-Xa activity 4 h after Dalteparin CUS CrCl >90 ml/min CrCl >89–60 ml/min CrCl >59–30 ml/min CrCl <29 ml/min p=0.45 Patients 5 12 26 13 anti-Xa activity IU/mL 0.012±0.02 0.016±0.054 0.066±0.12 0.20±0.66