Von Willebrand Disease (VWD)
Von Willebrand disease (VWD) is a bleeding disorder. It affects your blood‘s ability to clot. If your blood doesn’t clot, you can have heavy, hard-to-stop bleeding after an injury.
SymptomsTestsTreatmentsvon Willebrand Disease
Von Willebrand disease (VWD) is a bleeding disorder. It affects your blood‘s ability to clot. If your blood doesn’t clot, you can have heavy, hard-to-stop bleeding after an injury. The bleeding can damage your internal organs. Rarely, the bleeding may even cause death.
In VWD, you either have low levels of a certain protein in your blood or the protein doesn’t work well. The protein is called von Willebrand factor, and it helps your blood clot.
Normally, when one of your blood vessels is injured, you start to bleed. Small blood cell fragments called platelets (PLATE-lets) clump together to plug the hole in the blood vessel and stop the bleeding. Von Willebrand factor acts like glue to help the platelets stick together and form a blood clot.
Von Willebrand factor also carries clotting factor VIII (8), another important protein that helps your blood clot. Factor VIII is the protein that’s missing… Read more about Von Willebrand Disease