[The clinical features of gastrointestinal bleeding complicating aortic stenosis].

OBJECTIVE

To deepen the understanding about Heyde's syndrome by investigating the clinical characteristics and prognosis of the patients with aortic valve stenosis complicating with gastrointestinal bleeding.

METHODS

Patients with aortic valve stenosis and gastrointestinal bleeding coincidently admitted to our hospital from 2001 to 2011 were retrieved and analyzed.

RESULTS

In all the 443 157 in-patients, 474 patients were diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis (0.11%, 474/443 157) and 14 patients (9 males and 5 females, aged 53-87 years old) with gastrointestinal bleeding coincidently(2.95%, 14/474). Among the 14 patients, 3 were moderate aortic valve stenosis, 11 severe aortic valve stenosis. The aortic valve peak flow velocity was 324-709 (480.54 ± 188.25) cm/s and the mean aortic valve pressure gradient was 21.04-91.56 (56.93 ± 29.90) mm Hg(1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa).Heavy gastrointestinal bleeding was manifested in all the 14 patients with 1 of haematemesis and 13 of hematochezia.Hemoglobin (Hb) and red blood cell (RBC) count were significantly lower than the normal range [(69 ± 28) g/L and (2.71 ± 2.04)×10(12)/L, P < 0.05]. Their mean corpuscular volume(MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), platelet(PLT) count, prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR) were in normal range [(90.21 ± 2.94) fl, (29.39 ± 1.99) pg, (327.57 ± 14.82) g/L, (185.13 ± 22.55)×10(9)/L, (11.4 ± 1.04) s and 1.22 ± 0.44, respectively]. Among all the 14 patients, 13 were over 65 years old and they all accepted gastrointestinal imaging (13/14).Vascular malformation of intestine was found in 6 patients with 4 lesions located in descending colon and 2 located in sigmoid colon.Hemorrhage foci were found in 2 patients with one of colon cancer, and another of duodenal ulcer, while no definite hemorrhage foci were found in the other 11 patients. A total of 6 patients with severe aortic valve stenosis underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR) successfully (6/11) and no recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding was ever found. Conservative treatment was performed in the other 5 patients with severe aortic valve stenosis (5/11) and resulted in sudden death in 2 patients (2/5).

CONCLUSIONS

Prompt echocardiography and gastrointestinal endoscopy should be performed in the elderly patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding to facilitate the early diagnosis and treatment of Heyde's syndrome. AVR is a fundamental procedure to improve the prognosis of Heyde's syndrome.