[The effect of 1-deamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP) on blood coagulation in patients with hemophilia A and in healthy men].

DDAVP, a synthetic vasopressin analogue, causes a sustained increase of factor VIII in blood. The drug (0.4 micrograms/kg) was repeatedly infused into 13 hemophilics and 5 healthy men in order to study the kinetics of the elicited antihemophilic factor (AHF). The AHF increase and disappearance were found to be strictly related to the severity of the coagulation defect. Thus, data were obtained which will form a basis for rational therapeutic use of DDAVP in hemophilia. The DDAVP effect was completely independent of the presence of AHF in the circulation and was not associated with activation of clotting or platelets.