Another patient, who developed heart failure, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease in old age, showed a significant and persistent drop in platelet count (40 x 103/μL as opposed to 119 x 103/μL twenty years earlier) associated with an increase in VWF:Ag from 43 U/dL 81.2 U/dL. The gene discussed is VWF; the disease is heart failure.