ASSOCIATED VASCULAR MALFORMATIONS AND NEOPLASMS IN CHILDREN

Primary CNS neoplasms can rarely be associated with abnormal vasculari ty which is more striking than usual hypervascularity or neovasculariz ation. These lesions are sometimes reported as angiogliomas, angiomato us astrocytomas, or descriptively as two distinct pathological entitie s. This vascular pattern has been reported with astrocytomas, oligoden drogliomas, neurilemmomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, gangliogli omas, hemangioblastomas, mixed gliomas, gliosarcomas, and craniopharyn giomas. These lesions are classically found to be extremely vascular, both radiographically and at surgery. The true nature of these lesions is a point of controversy with some interpreting them merely as inten sely vascularized tumors. Most agree, however, that unlike neovascular ity in astrocytomas, the vascularity in these lesions does not carry a ny significant prognostic importance. In this report we present six su ch cases from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia seen in the pedi atric population. Four patients had vascular malformations associated with diffuse astrocytomas, and in 2 patients they were associated with subependymal giant cell astrocytomas. Five of the lesions were suprat entorial, and 1 was located in the posterior fossa. The history and th eories surrounding these lesions are explored.