[Prevention of vascular complications in polycythemia vera and primary thrombocythemia treated with low doses of acetylsalicylic acid]

Abstract

22 patients (13 with polycythaemia vera and 9 with primary thrombocythemia) were treated with 250 mg acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) daily for an average of 25 months. Before therapy was started, 3 patients had arterial thromboses, 3 had venous thromboses, 3 had spontaneous hemorrhage, 3 had acral circulatory disorders and 13 had dizziness, whereas under ASA treatment neither arterial nor venous thromboses occurred and only 4 mild spontaneous hemorrhages were recorded. Under ASA the circulatory disorders of the extremities disappeared completely in 11 patients and recurred intermittently in milder form in 2 patients. Dizziness was completely abolished in 12 of the 13 patients. Discontinuation of therapy was followed by prompt recurrence of symptoms. No correlation could be established between symptoms and extent of platelet disease either before or during ASA therapy. Low-dose salicylates are highly effective in the prevention and treatment of vascular complications in polycythaemia vera and primary thrombocythemia. Thanks to ASA, potentially leukemogenic cytostatic agents and radiophosphorus can be used more sparingly.