Severe Gastrointestinal Bleeding in a Patient With Subvalvular Aortic Stenosis Treated With Thalidomide and Octreotide: Bridging to Transcoronary Ablation of Septal Hypertrophy.

Gastrointestinal bleeding (GB) due to angiodysplasias can cause severe, recurrent bleeding, especially in elderly patients. Angiodysplastic bleedings in the gastrointestinal tract have been associated with aortic stenosis and, more recently, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, caused by an acquired coagulopathy known as Heyde's syndrome. Multiple factors are involved in the pathogenesis of angiodysplastic bleeding including genetic factors and increased levels of vascular intestinal growth factor at tissue levels. Endoscopic coagulation therapy is the primary treatment but often fails to resolve bleeding, especially in patients with large numbers of angiodysplasias. In patients with aortic stenosis and GB, the main treatment is aortic valve replacement but the patients may be unfit to undergo surgery due to the complicating anemia. In this case story, we present a patient with severe, GB due to hypertrophic subvalvular obstructive cardiomyopathy. Endoscopic procedures with argon beaming were performed without effect on bleeding. The patient was treated with a combination of both thalidomide and octreotide. Within 3 months, the patient recovered from the anemia and was able to undergo transcoronary ethanol ablation. No further bleeding episodes occurred, and thalidomide and octreotide were arrested. To our knowledge, this case report is the first to describe how this new drug combination therapy is an effective treatment of GB from angiodysplasias and can be used to bridge to surgical or endovascular treatment.