AIDSand Preventive Treatment in Hemophilia

Abstract

THE lives of hemophiliacs have been transformed by advances in treatment during the past decade. The demonstration in 1937 by Patek and Taylor¹ that a fraction isolated from plasma could correct the coagulation defect in this disease provided the impetus for subsequent efforts to isolate and concentrate the deficient factor, later designated factor VIII. It was not until 30 years later, however, that cryoprecipitate, shown by Pool et al.² to contain factor VIII, came into widespread use. The availability of this material meant that patients could be treated with concentrations of factor VIII that could not be obtained from fresh . . .