Development of inhibitors in patients with haemophilia from India.

Four hundred and seven patients (352 haemophilia A and 55 haemophilia B) were investigated for the presence of factor VIII and IX inhibitors. Twenty-four out of 292 severe and two out of 36 moderate haemophilia A patients showed the presence of inhibitors. The mean age at development of inhibitors was 17.7 years (range 6-52 years). In 12 patients the inhibitors were detected due to suboptimal response to factor replacement therapy (symptomatic) and in the remaining 14 patients the inhibitors were detected during the routine screening of the patients' samples for inhibitors. They had, however, responded well to the usual doses of factor concentrates and there was no suspicion in these patients that they had developed an inhibitor (asymptomatic). There were two families in which the inhibitors were detected in more than one family member. The level of inhibitors in symptomatic patients ranged from 2.2 Bethesda units (BU) mL(-1) to 460.6 BU mL(-1), and in asymptomatic patients it ranged from 0.8 BU mL(-1) to 3.2 BU mL(-1). The inhibitors persisted in all patients except one, who developed an inhibitor postoperatively for a brief period of 3 months. All these patients were followed up from first factor exposure and were tested for inhibitors at least twice a year. The mean number of exposure days before they developed inhibitors was 47.5 exposure days (range 17-98 exposure days). No inhibitors appeared after more than 100 exposure days in any of the patients. When 50 consecutive patients were investigated for intron 22 inversions of the factor VIII gene, 17 patients were found to be positive for inversions (10 proximal inversion; seven distal inversion) out of whom four patients developed inhibitors, three patients belonging to the same family. Out of 35 haemophilia B patients, only one patient developed an inhibitor. The overall prevalence of inhibitors was thus 8.2%, which is similar to the reports from western countries, prior to the introduction of highly purified factor concentrate therapy.