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Soft tissue tumors

Normal / benign

Vascular ectasias

Reviewer: Vijay Shankar, M.D. (see Reviewers page)
Revised: 26 February 2013, last major update November 2012
Copyright: (c) 2003-2013, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

See also hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, nevus flammeus, port wine stain, spider telangiectasia, telangiectasias

General
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● Localized dilation of preformed vessels

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

General
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● Also known as Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome
● Autosomal dominant disorder in which localized capillary dilation causes arterial blood to be shunted directly into postcapillary venules from birth
● Dilated capillaries and veins are present over skin and mucous membranes of GI, GU, lips, oral cavity, respiratory
● May bleed into gut, nose, urine (Am Fam Physician 2010;82:785)
● Patients have mutations in two transforming growth factor-beta binding proteins including endoglin

Case reports
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● 73 year old woman with purpuric, punctuate, and tiny macules on fingertips and tongue (Ann Dermatol 2009;21:206)

Clinical images
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Fingertips, tongue, stomach

Nasal mucosa

Tongue

Micro images
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Dilated capillaries lined by flat endothelial cells

Nevus flammeus

General
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● Also known as salmon patch
● Ordinary birthmark, usually on head and neck, represents dilated dermal vessels
● Usually regress

Micro images
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Infant

Port-wine stain

General
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● Type of nevus flammeus
● May grow proportionately with the child and thicken the skin surface
● Those in distribution of trigeminal nerve are associated with Sturge-Weber syndrome (encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis), a rare congenital disorder with venous angiomatous masses in leptomeninges over cortex, ipsilateral port-wine nevi, mental retardation, seizures, hemiplegia, skull radiopacities
● Attributed to faulty development of mesodermal and ectodermal elements

Micro images
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Infant

Spider telangiectasia

General
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● Non-neoplastic vascular lesion, composed of radial, pulsatile array of dilated subcutaneous arteries or arterioles around a central core that blanches with pressure applied to its center
● Usually on face, neck, upper chest of pregnant women and patients with cirrhosis
● May be associated with hyperestrinism

Micro images
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Various images

Telangiectasias

General
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● Group of abnormally prominent capillaries, venules and arterioles that creates a small focal red lesion, usually in skin or mucous membranes
● Congenital anomalies or exaggerations of preexisting vessels
● Not true neoplasms

End of Soft tissue tumors > Normal / benign > Vascular ectasias

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