Angiodysplasia of the colon: an expression of occlusive vascular disease.

We performed a prospective case control study and found among 306 patients, in whom a complete colonoscopy was done, 19 patients (6%) with angiodysplasia of the colon. These patients were significantly older than control subjects (p less than 0.05). Nine patients (47%) with angiodysplasia had no bleeding and were identified incidentally by colonoscopy performed for other indications. To clarify the possible role of underlying occlusive arterial diseases we compared the 19 patients with angiodysplasia with a control group, matched for sex and age, in whom a complete colonoscopy did not reveal a vascular anomaly. An increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases was found (p less than 0.001). Risk factors for cardiovascular diseases were significantly associated with angiodysplasia (p less than 0.05). These data support the contention that these acquired vascular lesions might result from chronic submucosal arteriovenous shunting secondary to mucosal ischemia due to underlying occlusive arterial diseases.