![]() ![]() With factor concentrates, people with hemophilia could be treated more quickly than ever before. Clotting factor could be freeze-dried into a powder that is easy to store, carry, and take. The greatest breakthrough in hemophilia treatment, however, was the development of f actor concentrates. Cryoprecipitate was the best way of stopping hemophilia bleeds ever seen. Judith Graham Pool discovered a process of freezing and thawing plasma to get a layer of factor-rich plasma ( cryoprecipitate). In 1930, scientists learned how to separate blood into its major parts, plasma and red cells. This made blood transfusions much more successful. Around 1900, scientists found that human blood could be divided into groups or types. Hemophilia research has come a long way since the early descriptions. The fascinating story of this royal family is told in the book Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie (the father of a son with hemophilia). The young man Alexis was treated for bleeds by the mysterious Rasputin, known as a “holy” man with the power to heal. Their son, born in 1904 and named Alexis, inherited hemophilia from his mother. Alix became Empress Alexandra at her marriage to Russia's Czar Nicholas in 1894. Queen Victoria's other daughter, Alice, had a carrier daughter, Alix. She passed the gene to the male heir to the Spanish throne. Beatrice's daughter married into the Spanish royal family. Of her children, one son, Leopold, had hemophilia B, and two daughters, Alice and Beatrice, were carriers. Queen Victoria's gene for hemophilia was likely caused by spontaneous mutation. This is because the hemophilia gene was passed from Queen Victoria (hemophilia B carrier), who became Queen of England in 1837, to the ruling families of Russia, Spain, and Germany. Hemophilia has been called a "royal disease". They were given Roman numeral names in 1961 to avoid confusion. Eleven other blood factors were recognized in the 1950s. Conrad Otto who described an inherited bleeding condition affecting males who he called “bleeder.” It was not until just before World War II that doctors learned that hemophilia A was caused by a problem with a protein in the blood, later called factor VIII. The first modern description was in 1803 by Dr. But they knew very little about how blood can clot. They could see that some people bled differently. People in ancient times wrote about blood and bleeding problems. ![]()
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