Assessment of cardiac function in Egyptian children with hemophilia A: a single-center study

Background
Hemophilia-A is a sex-related hereditary bleeding disorder. The study aimed to assess cardiac function in pediatric patients with hemophilia-A using conventional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI).


Patients and methods
This cross–sectional case-control study compared 40 patients with hemophilia-A with 40 healthy controls between October 2022 and September 2024. All study groups were assessed clinically by routine echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging.


Results

The mean of systolic blood pressure (112.7 ± 10.8 vs. 98.9 ± 4.1,
P
<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (70.7 ± 9.2 vs. 53.3 ± 4.7,
P
<0.001) was significantly higher among cases. Fifteen (35.7%) patients had systolic hypertension and 17 (40.5%) patients had diastolic hypertension. There was a statistically significantly higher mean of interventricular septum in systole and left ventricular internal dimensions in diastole measures among cases. In addition, there was a statistically significantly higher mean of isovolumic relaxation time, Tei index or myocardial performance index, and velocity of s’, e’, and a’ measures among cases. Among the cases, 42.9% had increased interventricular septum in diastole, and 35.7% had global myocardial dysfunction.



Conclusion
Cardiovascular complications occur in children with hemophilia A due to global myocardial dysfunction and hypertension, so they should be monitored closely.