Gaucher's disease: unexpected diagnosis in three patients over seventy years old

Gaucher's disease is usually diagnosed in the first or second decade of life with the appearance of bone pains, splenomegaly and hemorrhagic manifestations due to thrombocytopenia. When the hematological parameters are preserved and the enlarged spleen not evident until late in life, patients are rarely identified as having Gaucher's disease and the diagnosis is based only on the presence of Gaucher's cells in bone marrow. We present here three cases of elderly patients aged 81, 73 and 72 years in whom the disease was a surprise finding of bone marrow examination.