Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hemophilia A and B are caused by variants in the factor (F) VIII or FIX gene. Selective reporting may influence the distribution of variants reported in genetic databases. OBJECTIVES: To compare the spectrum of F8 and F9 variants in an international population-based pediatric cohort (PedNet Registry) with the spectrum found in the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders (EAHAD) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hemophilia A or Hemophilia B Mutation Project (CHAMP/CHBMP) databases. METHODS: All patients registered in the PedNet Registry on January 1, 2021 were included in this study. As comparators, data from patients with severe hemophilia included in the CHAMP/CHBMP registry (US center data) and EAHAD were used. RESULTS: Genetic information was available for 1941 patients. Intron 22 inversion was present in 52% of patients with severe hemophilia A; frameshift (36%), missense (28%), and nonsense (20%) were the most frequent variants in patients with severe hemophilia A who were inversion-negative. The most frequent variants in severe hemophilia B were missense (48%). In nonsevere disease, most variants were missense variants (moderate hemophilia A: 91%; mild hemophilia A: 95%, moderate and mild hemophilia B: 86% each). Comparison with the databases demonstrated a higher proportion of missense variants associated with severe hemophilia B in EAHAD (68%) than in PedNet (48%) and CHBMP (46%). CONCLUSION: The PedNet population-based cohort provides an alternative to the established databases, which collect data by selective reporting, as it is a well-maintained database covering the full spectrum of pathogenic F8 and F9 variants, and indicates the number of patients affected by each particular variant.