Diffuse Angiodysplasia of the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract in a Patient with Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

A 64-year-old woman with a known history of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy presented with severe anemia of unknown origin. She had also suffered from repeated episodes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding for the previous 3 years. Despite bone marrow examination and panendoscopic and angiographic studies, the origin of anemia remained undefined until a small bleeding site was found during a duodenoscopic examination. The lesion proved to be angiodysplasia. This case report is interesting in that angiodysplasia elicited gastrointestinal bleeding and was the cause of anemia. In the international literature, there are very few reported cases of bleeding from gastrointestinal angiodysplasia in association with subvalvular aortic obstruction.