Reappraising the spectrum of bleeding gastrointestinal angioectasia in a degenerative calcific aortic valve stenosis: Heyde’s syndrome

Multimodal Treatment and Diagnostic Modalities in the Setting of Heyde’s Syndrome: A Systematic Review

Heyde’s syndrome encompasses the triad of aortic stenosis (AS), angiodysplasia, and acquired Von Willebrand's disease (aVWD). The disease itself is a rare association that affects a small subset of patients who suffer from aortic stenosis. Nonetheless, it represents a vital area of clinical interest and is woefully underreported in the literature. Patients with Heyde’s syndrome develop gastrointestinal bleeding (GI) as a result of angiodysplasia and due to lack of adequate hemostasis, they tend to be positively predisposed toward developing gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Due to the glaring lack of comprehensive literature on Heyde's syndrome, this systematic review aims to bridge the gap by elucidating the various diagnostic and treatment options available to clinicians for Heyde’s syndrome patients as well as to give a detailed account of the pathophysiology of the disease.

This systematic review was done in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Google Scholar, Gulf Medical University (GMU) e-library, and PubMed were thoroughly searched for studies done in the last 10 years, which corresponds with our outlined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Relevant studies were then selected on the basis of their abstracts and titles. These studies then underwent a comprehensive quality assessment in which any papers which did not meet this study’s eligibility criteria were omitted. Overall, 18 studies fulfilled the criteria of this systematic review.