Heyde’s syndrome

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a severe and potentially life-threatening condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In clinical practice, its differential dia­gnosis can sometimes be complicated, especially when bleeding is recurrent. One of the lesser-known reasons for recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding is the so called Heyde’s syndrome. It is a combination of bleeding from gastrointestinal angiodysplasia, aortic stenosis and acquired type 2A von Willebrand syndrome. In the submitted article, authors present a summary of the current knowledge on etiology and pathogenesis of the disease. The degenerative aortic valve disease, typically present in elderly patients, causes changes in the blood flow through stenotic opening. This results in elongation of otherwise globular von Willebrand’s factor (vWF) molecules, resulting in its reduced efficacy in hemostasis. According to new scientific discoveries, vWF also plays a role in angiogenesis and therefore in gastrointestinal angiodysplasia formation. This combination of factors results in recurrent bleeding typical for Heyde’s syndrome. Surgical aortic valve replacement is the gold standard treatment. A vicious circle can often be created between the gastroenterologist, who refers the patient for cardiac surgery procedures, and the cardiothoracic surgeon, who is waiting for a time when the patient will stop bleeding. A close communication and cooperation between the gastroenterologist, hematologist and cardiothoracic surgeon is required to properly manage the patient. The presence of angiodysplasia in an elderly patient, associated with recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding, should lead clinicians to look for aortic stenosis and consider Heyde’s syndrome as a potential dia­gnosis. Its interesting etiopathogenesis and rare occurrence led the authors to further investigate this topic. They also present a short summary of their own group of patients. Key words: Heyde’s syndrome – aortic stenosis – angiodysplasia – von Willebrand’s syndrome