Essential thrombocytosis (ET) is one of the myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) which increase the probability of thrombosis and bleeding. ET is usually discovered as an incidental finding on blood workup and in rare cases, will present as vascular events such as stroke. Our patient, a 77-year-old female, a case of acute cerebral infarct presented with numbness and severe weakness of left upper and lower extremity. Serial complete blood count showed an elevated platelet count. Bone marrow aspiration studies showed increased number of enlarged megakaryocytes. She was diagnosed as a case of ET and maintained on Aspirin 80 mg per tablet once a day and Hydroxyurea 500 mg per tablet once a day.

Human ; Female ; Aged: 65-79 Yrs Old ; Aspirin ; Hydroxyurea

Fahr’s Disease (FD) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder of uncertain etiology characterized by abnormal intracranial calcium deposition in the basal ganglia. It initially presents in the 4th to 6th decade of life with diverse neuropsychiatric manifestations. The correlation between vascular calcifi cation and coronary artery disease had been studied extensively, but its correlation with cerebrovascular disease remains elusive. Vascular calcifi cation is thus an important risk factor for coronary artery disease. It was also postulated that a similar risk for cerebrovascular disease may be attributable to intracranial vascular calcifi cation. We present the case of a 46-year-old male with progressive affective and cognitive disturbances, parkinsonism and ataxia. Eight years after initial presentation, he developed an acute ischemic infarct in the background of diffuse intracranial calcifi cation characteristic of FD, confi rmed by neuroimaging (Figure 1). While a number of cases FD with associated stroke or stroke-like symptoms have been reported, we are unaware of such occurrence in a Filipino. A pathologic model linking intracranial vascular calcifi cation in FD with cerebrovascular disease and ischemic stroke has been proposed, and warrants further investigation.
Stroke ; Cerebrovascular Disorders