Modification of factor VIII complex properties in patients with liver disease.

Factor VIII procoagulant activity (VIII:C), factor VIII related antigen (VIIIR:AG), and the von Willebrand factor (VIII:WF) were measured in 19 patients with liver disease (8 cases of alcoholic cirrhosis and 11 with acute viral hepatitis). In both groups of patients the levels of VIII:C, VIIIR:AG, and VIIIR:WF were above normal or normal with mean values well above the normal range. VIIR:AG was also measured in the same patients by two-dimensional electrophoresis, and its biological properties were measured after purification by chromatography. By both methods the VIIIR: AG in the patients with liver disease differed from normal VIIIR:AG. In five of the patients with acute viral hepatitis, who were tested after they had recovered, the previously elevated levels of VIII:C, VIIIR:AG, and VIIIR:WF had dropped to normal limits and the qualitative abnormalities had disappeared.