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World J Hematol. Aug 6, 2017; 6(3): 32-54
Published online Aug 6, 2017. doi: 10.5315/wjh.v6.i3.32
Aspirin cures erythromelalgia and cerebrovascular disturbances in JAK2-thrombocythemia through platelet-cycloxygenase inhibition
Jan Jacques Michiels
Jan Jacques Michiels, Department of Hematology, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp University, B-2650 Edegem, Belgium
Jan Jacques Michiels, Goodheart Insitute Freedom of Science and Education in Nature Medicine and Health, 3069 AT Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author contributions: Michiels JJ solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Jan Jacques Michiels, MD, PhD, Professor, Goodheart Institute Freedom of Science and Education in Nature Medicine and Health, Erasmus Tower, Veenmos 13, 3069 AT Rotterdam, The Netherlands. goodheartcenter@upcmail.nl
Telephone: +31-62-6970534
Received: March 20, 2017
Peer-review started: March 24, 2017
First decision: April 18, 2017
Revised: July 3, 2017
Accepted: July 17, 2017
Article in press: July 17, 2017
Published online: August 6, 2017
Processing time: 139 Days and 16 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: About seventy years after the synthesis by Hoffmann, acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin) has been discovered in the late 1970s as a wunder drug that cures erythromelalgia and migraine-like cerebral microvascular disturbances by irreversible blockage of platelet cyclo-oxygenase mediated arteriolar inflammation and thrombosis in JAK2-mutated thrombocythemia of patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV). The ADP (P2Y12) receptor inhibtors ticlopedin and clopidogrel, other platelet inhibitors that do not affect platelet cycooxygenase, and coumarin are ineffective in the treatment of erythromelalgia and cerebral vascular thrombotic complications in ET and PV.