PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Chooi, Weng Kong
AU  - Woodhouse, Neil
AU  - Coley, Stuart C.
AU  - Griffiths, Paul D.
TI  - Pediatric Head and Neck Lesions: Assessment of Vascularity by MR Digital Subtraction Angiography
DP  - 2004 Aug 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 1251--1255
VI  - 25
IP  - 7
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/25/7/1251.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/25/7/1251.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2004 Aug 01; 25
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: 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).CONCLUSION: 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.