he also established a haemostasis laboratory for the hitherto undiagnosed inherited blood coagulation disorders, such as the haemophilias and von willebrands disease. the only available treatment for these potentially crippling bleeding diseases at the time, was frozen fresh plasma and the newly discovered cryoprecipitated factor viii concentrate (judith pool in 1967), as industrial concentrates were not yet being marketed. replacement therapy with this primitive, home-made plasma fraction, allowed major orthopaedic, abdominal and thoracic surgery to be carried out with success. another first was the introduction of hepatitis b surface antigen testing, first described by baruch blumberg in 1965. hepatitis b was a common cause of chronic liver disease in iran, most particularly among haemophiliacs.