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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2008;299(16):1890.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Federal health officials hope to raise the profile of a family of inherited bleeding disorders that are often overlooked during routine physical examinations.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) on February 29 issued the first US guidelines for the diagnosis and management of von Willebrand disease, the most common inherited bleeding disorder (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/vwd/vwd.pdf). Patients with this disorder may experience symptoms that range from easy bruising and heavy menstrual bleeding to potentially life-threatening bleeding following surgery, trauma, or childbirth.

Loss or dysfunction of von Willebrand factor (blue), a protein that normally helps platelets adhere at sites of vascular injury, causes a family of inherited bleeding disorders. Credit: Molecule Data Source: PDB ID 1SQ0.

Andra James, MD, a member of the NHLBI expert panel that wrote the guidelines, said the group hopes the document will provide physicians with a useful tool for diagnosing and managing . . . [Full Text of this Article]