MRI diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma at head and neck region

Cavernous hemangioma is common in the head and neck region, and pathologically cavernous hemangioma characterized by small feeding arteries and large blood pools. Angiography and computed tomography have not demonstrated the whole extension of these lesions. Nine patients with cavernous hemangioma were evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in this study. MRI could clearly demonstrate cavernous hemangiomas with good contrast to normal tissues. Cavernous hemangiomas showed low-iso signal intensity compared to the muscle on the T1 weighted image and iso-high signal intensity on T2. All cases did not show a flow void on the proton density image that was most sensitive to flow, and were enhanced by Gd-DTPA. Especially, T2 weighted and Gd-DTPA enhanced images were useful to demonstrate these lesions. Intramuscular cavernous hemangiomas in the head and neck region were characterized by local muscle atrophy and septum formation. (author)