Mortality and causes of death in Italian persons with haemophilia, 1990-2007.

Although a number of studies have analysed so far the causes of death and the life expectancy in haemophilic populations, no investigations have been conducted among Italian haemophilia centres. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate mortality, causes of deaths, life expectancy and co-morbidities in Italian persons with haemophilia (PWH). Data pertaining to a total of 443 PWH who died between 1980 and 2007 were retrospectively collected in the 30 centres who are members of the Italian Association of Haemophilia Centres that chose to participate. The mortality rate ratio standardized to the male Italian population (SMR) was reduced during the periods 1990-1999 and 2000-2007 such that during the latter, death rate overlapped that of the general population (SMR 1990-1999: 1.98 95% CI 1.54-2.51; SMR 2000-2007: 1.08 95% CI 0.83-1.40). Similarly, life expectancy in the whole haemophilic population increased in the same period (71.2 years in 2000-2007 vs. 64.0 in 1990-1999), approaching that of the general male population. While human immunodeficiency virus infection was the main cause of death (45%), 13% of deaths were caused by hepatitis C-associated complications. The results of this retrospective study show that in Italian PWH improvements in the quality of treatment and global medical care provided by specialized haemophilia centres resulted in a significantly increased life expectancy.

Italian Registry of Haemophilia and Allied Disorders. Objectives, methodology and data analysis.

National haemophilia registries are powerful instruments to support health care and research. A national registry was established in Italy by the Ministry of Health until 1999. Since 2003 the Italian Association of Haemophilia Centres (AICE) started a new programme aiming at building up the Italian Registry of Haemophilia and Allied Disorders. The AICE identified an expert panel to steer the registry. A computer software to assist patient management was developed and all the AICE-affiliated haemophilia treatment centres (HTC) were prompted to adopt it. Twice a year a predefined set of anonymized data is centralized and merged into a national database. Duplicated entries are managed through a confidentiality sparing mechanism. The database covers sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory and treatment data. A subset of data are shared with the Ministry of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità,ISS).Overall, data were collected six times by 43 of 49 HTC; 41 centres updated their patients' records up to December 2006. The database contains 6632 unique records, 442 of them referring to dead patients. Database growth and missing data clearance showed a constantly positive trend over time. The database has collected records of the following alive patients - haemophilia A: 1364 severe, 398 moderate and 935 mild; haemophilia B: 231 severe, 138 moderate and 204 mild; von Willebrand's disease: 1208 type 1, 346 type 2 and 96 type 3. Inhibitor patients were 296 (of which 194 high responders and 65 low responders).The Italian registry run by AICE adds to the list of the available national haemophilia registries and is intended to establish treatment guidelines and foster research projects in Italy.