Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings of Developmental Venous Anomalies

Abstract

Most frequently, a single DVA was observed in the patients. A DVA caput could be located in the deep, subcortical, juxtacortical or deep + subcortical and juxtacortical + subcortical regions. Increasing collecting vein diameter increased visibility on noncontrast MRI, and small DVAs could be overlooked, even with contrast-enhanced MRI series if the images were not examined carefully.

The Management of Symptomatic Cerebral Developmental Venous Anomalies: A Clinical Experience of 43 Cases

“…Numerous linear or dot-like enhancing foci converging in a single enlarged, tubular draining vein may be seen in enhanced CT scans [4–7]. MRI has been studied as an imaging diagnostic method for DVAs [9]. The typical imaging characteristics in MRIs are stellate configuration around an emanating transcortical vein.…”

“…A similar percentage was reported by Zhang et al [15], with this type of association in 11 of 41 (26.8%) cerebellar CMs patients. Gökçe et al [9] reported CM in 17.3% patients with DVA (if the DVA was not localized in the drainage region, it was only 11%). In our study of patients with symptomatic DVAs, CMs were found in 13 patients (30.2%), with three in the frontal lobe, four in the cerebellar hemisphere, and the remaining six in the brain stem.…”

“…Studies suggest that most patients with DVAs have no clinical symptoms except for a few patients with epilepsy, intracranial hemorrhage, or neurofunction deficit [3–7]. DVAs were once thought to be rare lesions, however, with the advance of imaging techniques, especially the widespread use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the detection rate for DVAs has increased dramatically [8,9]. DAVs have a benign natural course and good prognosis [4,6,10,11].…”

The Many Faces of Cerebral Developmental Venous Anomaly and Its Mimicks: Spectrum of Imaging Findings

“…In a prospective autopsy study of 4,069 consecutive brains, 165 (2.58%) of the brains had one or more DVAs . DVA has also been reported in 1.3% to 6.4% of patients undergoing clinically indicated contrast‐enhanced MRI …”

Increased Prevalence of Developmental Venous Anomalies in Children with Intracranial Neoplasms

“…Postmortem studies 3 decades ago suggested a prevalence of 2.7% 1 ; however, with the use of modern imaging techniques, the prevalence is estimated to be much higher (6.4%). 2 DVAs are typically considered variants of venous development that, in and of themselves, are of little clinical import. However, a small percentage of DVAs have been associated with such findings as cavernous malformations, 3,4 thrombosis with subsequent venous infarction, 5,6 lobar atrophy, 7 T2 and FLAIR signal-intensity abnormalities, 8,9 perfusion abnormalities, 10,11 and SWI hypointensities.…”