Anagrelide (Agrylin/Xagrid, Shire and Thromboreductin, AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG) is a drug used for the treatment of essential thrombocytosis (also known as essential thrombocythemia), or overproduction of blood platelets. It also has been used in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.Anagrelide controlled release (GALE-401) is in phase III clinical trials by Galena Biopharma for the treatment of essential thrombocytosis. Medical uses
Anagrelide is used to treat essential thrombocytosis, especially when the current treatment of the patient is insufficient. Essential thrombocytosis patients who are suitable for anagrelide often meet one or more of the following factors:
age over 60 years
platelet count over 1000×109/L
a history of thrombosisAccording to a 2005 Medical Research Council randomized trial, the combination of hydroxyurea with aspirin is superior to the combination of anagrelide and aspirin for the initial management of essential thrombocytosis. The hydroxyurea arm had a lower likelihood of myelofibrosis, arterial thrombosis, and bleeding, but it had a slightly higher rate of venous thrombosis. Anagrelide can be useful in times when hydroxyurea proves ineffective. Side-effects
Common side effects are headache, diarrhea, unusual weakness/fatigue, hair loss, nausea. The same MRC trial mentioned above also analyzed the effects of anagrelide on bone marrow fibrosis, a common feature in patients with myelofibrosis. The use of anagrelide was associated with a rapid increase in the degree of reticulin deposition (the mechanism by which fibrosis occurs), when compared to those in whom hydroxyurea was used. Patients with myeloproliferative conditions are known to have a very slow and somewhat variable course of marrow fibrosis increase.
Intelligence tests showed the person had an IQ of 75, considered "Borderline intellectual functioning", just above what would be officially classified as intectually disabled.The person was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant, leading an at least superficially normal life, despite having enlarged ventricles with a decreased volume of brain tissue. "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life", commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain-defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. "If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side." Notable cases
Ice hockey player Colby Cave had acute obstructive hydrocephalus due to a colloid cyst. Author Sherman Alexie, born with the condition, wrote about it in his semi-autobiographical junior fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (1689–1700), probably contracted meningitis at birth, which resulted in this condition. Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (1793–1875) became emperor in 1835 despite various health issues including hydrocephalus and epilepsy. In the American folklore of the states of Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut, an urban legend exists about the melon heads, the inbred descendants of families of people born with hydrocephaly. References
External links

Hydrocephalus at Curlie
Guidelines for pediatric hydrocephalus