Synonyms
Colonic angiomas; Colonic arteriovenous malformation; Vascular ectasia of the colon
Definition
Angiodysplasia is characterized by the presence of malformed dilated blood vessels in submucosa, extending into the overlying intestinal mucosa. It is the second most common colonic lesion (after diverticulosis) which may cause gastrointestinal bleeding, though it may be asymptomatic. Most cases are acquired degenerative lesions of the elderly people. Early in the nineteenth century (1839), Phillips described a vascular abnormality that caused gastrointestinal bleeding, but it was Margoulis and colleagues who first used the term angiodysplasia in 1960.
Angiodysplasia may present as multiple vascular lesions or as an isolated lesion. When there is GI bleeding without obvious reason, small bowel angiodysplasia may account for 30–40% of cases. Low-grade bleeding is characterized by melena or hematochezia in clinical presentation. Rarely, (15% of cases) bleeding can be massive, and in...
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References and Further Reading
Anne, H. (1988). Angiodysplasia: Current concepts. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 64, 259–263.
Fenoglio-Preiser, C., Noffsinger, A., Stemmermann, G., et al. (2008). Gastrointestinal pathology. An atlas and text (3rd ed., pp. 863–864). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins.
Kheterpal, S. (1991). Angiodysplasia: A review. Journal of Royal Society of Medicine, 84, 615–618.
Roskell, D. E., Biddolph, S. D., & Warren, P. F. (1998). Apparent deficiency of mucosal vascular collagen type IV associated with angiodysplasia of the colon. Journal of Clinical Pathology, 51, 18–20.
West, B., Mitchell, K. (2009). In R. Odze, J. Goldblum (Eds.), Surgical pathology of the GI tract, liver, biliary tract and pancreas (2nd ed., pp.196–199). Saunders Elsevier.
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Sotiropoulou, M. (2017). Angiodysplasia. In: Carneiro, F., Chaves, P., Ensari, A. (eds) Pathology of the Gastrointestinal Tract. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40560-5_1415
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40560-5_1415
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