Association of Cutaneous Red-to-Purple Hemangiomas with Leptomeningeal Hemangiomas. A Clinical Study of Two Patients

Abstract

Cutaneous hemangioma is a benign vascular tumor of infancy with an initial proliferating period that appears between 1 to 2 weeks of life, extends during 18 months to 2 years of life, and then slowly regresses during several years until it disappears completely. They are characterized by endothelial cell proliferation followed by diminishing hyperplasia and progressive fibrosis. Vascular malformations are present at birth, grow commensurately with the child, and are characterized histologically by a normal rate of endothelial cell turnover, flat endothelium, thin (normal) basal membrane and normal mast cells. These cutaneous anomalies are commonly associated with cerebellar malformations, main cerebral arteries anomalies, congenital cardiac anomalies and/or coarctation of the aorta and persistence of embryonic arteries. Cutaneous hemangiomas can be associated with intracranial or extracranial hemangiomas that regress at the same time as the cutaneous hemangiomas. Cutaneous hemangiomas may show different types of color. Cutaneous red-to-purple hemangiomas are uncommon and their bright-red color is evident from the first weeks of life and remains unaltered until the hemangioma disappears. The intracranial angiographic studies in our series of more than 50 cases with facial hemangioma showed that patients with red-to-purple hemangiomas are commonly associated with localized leptomeningeal hemangiomas either in the ipsilateral or contralateral side. These leptomingeal hemangiomas were visualized only by MR enhanced with gadolinium. Involution of the cutaneous and leptomeningeal hemangiomas seems to occur simultaneously as in other types of external and internal hemangiomas.