Authors: S Horsch P Govaert F M Cowan M J N L Benders F Groenendaal M H Lequin G Saliou L S de Vries
Publish Date: 2014/04/23
Volume: 56, Issue: 7, Pages: 579-588
Abstract
Cerebral developmental venous anomaly DVA is considered a benign anatomical variant of parenchymal venous drainage it is the most common vascular malformation seen in the adult brain Despite its assumed congenital origin little is known about DVA in the neonatal brain We report here the first cohort study of 14 neonates with DVADVA was first detected on cUS in 6 and on MRI in 8 of the 14 infants The cUS appearances of DVA showed a focal fairly uniform area of increased echogenicity often 86 adjacent to the lateral ventricle and located in the frontal lobe 58 Blood flow in the dilated collector vein detected by Doppler ultrasound US varied between cases venous flow pattern in ten and arterialized in four The appearance on conventional MRI was similar to findings in adults Serial imaging showed a fairly constant appearance to the DVAs in some cases while others varied considerably regarding anatomical extent and flow velocityThis case series underlines that a neonatal diagnosis of DVA is possible with carefully performed cUS and MRI and that DVA tends to be an incidental finding with a diverse spectrum of imaging appearances Serial imaging suggests that some DVAs undergo dynamic changes during the neonatal period and early infancy this may contribute to why diagnosis is rare at this ageThe authors declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the local ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments The authors declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study
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