Sharon: Doctors knew of CAA

2006-01-10 21:51

Jerusalem - Doctors treating Ariel Sharon denied a report on Tuesday that they triggered the premier's haemorrhage by prescribing anti-coagulants after failing to detect a blood disease in his brain.

Had doctors diagnosed after an earlier minor stroke that Sharon was suffering a disease of the blood vessels in the brain, they would almost certainly not have prescribed the drugs which are known to increase the risk of strokes and brain haemorrhage, the Haaretz newspaper said.

The disease, known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), was only diagnosed during the CT (computed tomography) scans conducted after Sharon was rushed to hospital late on Wednesday, one of the doctors treating the premier told Haaretz on condition of anonymity.

However Shlomo Mor Yosef, director of Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital, angrily dismissed the report at a news conference as "untrue".

"The Hadassah doctors knew about the prime minister's brain diagnosis when he was first admitted," Mor Yosef told reporters.

- AFP