Laboratory screening and diagnosis of von Willebrand's disease.

Von Willebrand's disease is caused by the quantitative or qualitative deficiency of von Willebrand factor. It is the most common congenital bleeding disorder affecting 1% of the population. The disease has a deep impact on the quality of life of the patients and in severe cases it may lead to life-threatening bleeding complications or may be fatal. A number of therapeutic options are available nowadays, and by the prophylactic use of these drugs before surgery, delivery etc., severe haemorrhagic complications can be avoided. Therefore it is extremely important to establish the correct diagnosis in time. There is no single diagnostic test due to the high variability of the disease. A number of assays are to be carried out in order to confirm the diagnosis apd identify the subtype of the disease. In this review we describe a simple approach to get to the correct diagnosis of this common bleeding disorder.