HEREDITARY-DEFICIENCY OF ALL VITAMIN-K-DEPENDENT PROCOAGULANTS AND ANTICOAGULANTS

Summary. Hereditary combined deficiency of vitamin K‐dependent factors is a rare entity. We report a 7‐year‐old girl of Arab origin with hereditary deficiency of the procoagulants factors II, VII, IX and X and the natural anticoagulants proteins C and S. The patient is the tenth offspring of a consanguinous marriage and presented at 6 weeks with spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage. Symptoms improved following plasma infusion. A sibling died at 5 d from uncontrollable umbilical bleeding. Blood coagulation work‐up at 6 years showed: factor II:C (activity) 12 U/dl, factor II: Ag (antigen) 40 U/dl; factor VII:C 12 U/dl; factor IX:C 36 U/dl, factor IX: Ag 57 U/dl; factor X:C 17 U/dl, factor X: Ag 54 U/dl; protein C activity 43 U/dl; protein C:Ag 45 U/dl; protein S:Ag 34 U/dl; levels of factors V:C and VIII:C were normal. Assays of coagulation factors in the parents and five of the siblings were within the normal range. Following acute infection and dilantin therapy procoagulant activity levels were reduced further and were partially increased after vitamin K infusion. Crossed immunoelectrophoresis of prothrombin in the presence of calcium lactate revealed a population of des‐carboxyprothrombin. Serum vitamin K epoxide levels were undetectable. The data suggest that the defect in our patient stems from abnormal carboxylation of the vitamin K‐dependent proteins and that the mode of inheritance is autosomal recessive. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved