Calcific Aortic Stenosis and Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Abstract

To the Editor: Twenty-two years ago in this column, Dr. E. C. Heyde noted the association of calcific aortic stenosis and gastrointestinal bleeding in elderly patients.¹ Confirmation of the association followed in this Journal and others.^{2 3 4 5} Boss and Rosenblum reported on a patient with multiple vascular lesions in the right colon that were missed on barium examination but seen at autopsy, and they suggested that the lesions were the source of bleeding.⁶ Such lesions, termed angiodysplasia by Galdabini,⁷ may be identified by angiography. We have performed aortic-valve replacement in two patients with what may be called Heyde's syndrome, with apparent . . .