Girolami A, Cosi E, Ferrari S, Lombardi AM,
Objective: To compare the effects of congenital Prekallikrein deficiency in humans and in animal.
Patients and animals: All reported cases of patients with Prekallikrein deficiency have been taken into consideration as gathered from personal papers and Pub Med repeated searches carried out during the past 16 years. Prekallikrein deficiency in animals has been obtained by two Pub Med searches carried out on July 2017 and May 2018.
Results: Congenital Prekallikrein deficiency in humans is associated with no bleeding tendency even though in two patients surgical bleeding has been reported to stop after the administration of Fresh Frozen Plasma.
Bleeding in animals was seen in one horse after castration and in a dog with unexplained gastrointestinal bleeding
Hypertension, hypertension related disorders and thrombosis have been frequently reported in humans with Prekallikrein deficiency. On the contrary no cardiovascular disorder or thrombotic event has ever been reported in Prekallikrein deficient animals.
Conclusions: Comparison between human and animals has a limitation due to the fact that the number of animals with such a defect is very scanty. Due to the revival of interest in the contact phase of blood coagulation it would be very useful if a large number of animals, dogs in particular, could be investigated. Such study could cast some new light on the relation between the contact phase of blood coagulation and cardiovascular diseases and thrombosis.