Acquired von Willebrand Syndrome and Chronic Anaemia: A Different Diagnostic Approach

Abstract

Heyde’s syndrome is a form of acquired von Willebrand syndrome that consists of bleeding from intestinal angiodysplasia in the presence of aortic stenosis (AS). An association with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, rather than AS, by a similar mechanism has also been described. We report the case of a 78-year-old woman with chronic anaemia and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy in whom intestinal angiodysplasia with active bleeding was identified by an unconventional method. In this case, the authors describe a different approach to reach the correct diagnosis.

Keywords

• Heyde’s syndrome
• hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
• acquired von Willebrand syndrome
• angiodysplasia
• anemia