Pediatric head and neck lesions: assessment of vascularity by MR digital subtraction angiography.
OBJECTIVE
Pediatric head and neck lesions can be difficult to characterize on clinical grounds alone. We investigated the use of dynamic MR digital subtraction angiography as a noninvasive adjunct for the assessment of the vascularity of these abnormalities.


METHODS
Twelve patients (age range, 2 days to 16 years) with known or suspected vascular abnormalities were studied. Routine MR imaging, time-of-flight MR angiography, and MR digital subtraction angiography were performed in all patients. The dynamic sequence was acquired in two planes at one frame per second by using a thick section (6-10 cm) selective radio-frequency spoiled fast gradient-echo sequence and an IV administered bolus of contrast material. The images were subtracted from a preliminary mask sequence and viewed as a video-inverted cine loop.


RESULTS
In all cases, MR digital subtraction angiography was successfully performed. The technique showed the following: 1) slow flow lesions (two choroidal angiomas, eyelid hemangioma, and scalp venous malformation); 2) high flow lesions that were not always suspected by clinical examination alone (parotid hemangioma, scalp, occipital, and eyelid arteriovenous malformations plus a palatal teratoma); 3) a hypovascular tumor for which a biopsy could be safely performed (Burkitt lymphoma); and 4) a hypervascular tumor of the palate (cystic teratoma).


CONCLUSIONS
Our early experience suggests that MR digital subtraction angiography can be reliably performed in children of all ages without complication. The technique provided a noninvasive assessment of the vascularity of each lesion that could not always have been predicted on the basis of clinical examination or routine MR imaging alone.
Section of Academic Radiology, University of Sheffield, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, England.
Weng Kong
WK
Chooi
Neil
N
Woodhouse
Stuart C
SC
Coley
Paul D
PD
Griffiths
D000293:Adolescent; D015901:Angiography, Digital Subtraction; D001165:Arteriovenous Malformations / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D010039:Otorhinolaryngologic Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity