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A young woman was admitted to our Department for a sudden occlusion of the proximal deep venous stream of the right lower limb, and a controlateral recurrence within a few days, during the tenth week of pregnancy. Diagnosis was made by strain-gauge pletismography. We found she had a type 1 congenital AT III defect (AT III activity : 35%; AT III antigenic level : 40%), never diagnosed before

2 cases of acute idiopathic thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura are reported. Both of them were treated with plasma exchange, antiplatelet drugs and prednisolone and both completely recovered. Plasma exchange appeared to be the critical treatment. In 1 of these cases the prostacyclinlike activity released from venous tissues and the ability of plasma to stimulate synthesis of prostacyclinlike activity from venous tissues exhausted after repeated washings were investigated. Both activities were detectable and comparable to those of a healthy control. These findings do not support the hypothesis of a major role played by the prostacyclin system in the pathogenesis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.