What You Need To Know About Hemophilia

How It's Diagnosed

Diagnosis of hemophilia can be made during adulthood, childhood, or even when the affected individual is still a fetus. Hemophilia symptoms can occur at various ages depending on how severe the clotting factor deficiency is. The worst cases of hemophilia are almost always diagnosed within the first year of a patient's life, and some are only diagnosed after they experience excessive bleeding during an invasive procedure or surgery. Diagnostic tests that can identify hemophilia include an APTT test, which measures the amount of time it takes an individual's blood to clot. This provides indications related to the clotting factors eight, nine, eleven, and twelve.

A PT test may also be used to determine how long it takes for an individual's blood to clot by measuring the effectiveness of clotting factors one, two, five, seven, and ten. These clotting blood tests must be performed in order to diagnose hemophilia, as a patient will have a relatively normal complete blood count or CBC result. Sometimes, a low red blood cell count and low hemoglobin can be indicative of hemophilia.

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