Radiology – Integrated Training Initiative (R-ITI) | Paediatrics | Lymphatic and Vascular Malformations

Lymphatic and Vascular Malformations
Session Overview
Description
This session provides an overview of the clinical manifestations of haemangiomas, lymphatic and vascular malformations, their radiological work-up plus typical imaging findings.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you should be able to:

• Recall the broad classification of vascular malformations and haemangiomas
• Describe the clinical manifestations and complications of these vascular malformations and haemangiomas in children
• Identify the main radiological features of common vascular malformations on x-ray, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different imaging modalities in the diagnostic work-up of these patients

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should:

• Have a basic knowledge of ultrasound and MRI

The whole of the vascular anomalies field can be divided into two groups (Fig 1):

Vascular tumours, the most common of which in children are haemangiomas (Fig 2)
Vascular malformations, which are less common than haemangiomas, but are very important and easy to understand if you recognise the four basic types of vascular malformation (Fig 3).
Making the diagnosis
When imaging a child with a suspected vascular malformation or haemangioma, it is important to have a clear imaging strategy in place. The majority of these anomalies can be assessed easily and categorised with Doppler sonography as high-flow (Fig 4a) or low-flow (Fig 4b) lesions, as detailed in the imaging algorith