A pregnant woman with severe epistaxis--a rare manifestation of folic acid deficiency.

The case-history of a pregnant woman with a life-threatening thrombocytopenia, due to folic acid deficiency, caused by an extremely low dietary intake is described. As folic acid deficiency manifests itself in a variety of ways, its clinical features are not always easily recognized. Timely recognition is important because of the rapid progressive nature of the disorder, especially in pregnancy, and because rapid improvement is achieved by simple treatment: supplementation of the deficiency. This is well illustrated in the patient described in this case report. A short review of the literature is presented.