Pediatric Cavernous Malformation

  • Etiology: cluster of hyalinized dilated thin-walled capillaries with surrounding hemosiderin
  • Imaging: supratentorial 80%, infratentorial 15%, spinal cord 5%
  • Clinical: sporadic form (66%) associated with solitary lesion, familial form (33%) associated with multiple lesions
  • Complications: hemorrhagic stroke
    — Imaging: non territorial hematoma, multicentric blooming foci on GRE

Radiology Cases of Cavernous Malformation

CT and MRI of cavernous malformation
Axial (above left) and coronal (above right) CT without contrast of the brain shows a large round high density lesion in the left middle cranial fossa. Axial T1 MRI without contrast of the brain (below left) shows the lesion to have mixed signal intensity while the axial gradient echo MRI (below right) shows a low signal intensity ring around the lesion representing hemosiderin deposition.