December 07, 2018

Multispectral optoacoustic tomography showed significant differences between types of vascular malformations in the ratio of oxygenated to deoxygenated hemoglobin.

Multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) has been shown to be a versatile, noninvasive tool for the diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of vascular malformations, according to the results of a preliminary cross-sectional study of 6 patients with arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and 6 patients with venous malformations (VMs). Findings from the analysis were published in JAMA Dermatology.

The investigators sought to evaluate the use of MSOT for noninvasive assessment of molecular biomarkers of vascular malformations. They explored whether MSOT can be used to distinguish between AVMs and VMs by quantitative analysis of oxygenated (HbO₂) and deoxygenated (HbR) hemoglobin. The HbO₂:HbR ratio was calculated for healthy tissue, as well as for AVMs and VMs, both before and after treatment.

All the 12 patients who were evaluated underwent clinical hybrid MSOT/ultrasonographic imaging both before and after treatment at an interdisciplinary vascular malformations clinic by trained ultrasonographic and MSOT examiners. The examiners were blinded with respect to patient history and stage of disease. All data were obtained between April 11, 2017, and April 25, 2017, and were analyzed between May 1, 2017, and October 31, 2017. Clinical hybrid MSOT/ultrasonographic imaging was conducted before or within 1 week after endovascular embolization (in patients with AVM) or percutaneous sclerotherapy (in patients with VM).

A total of 12 patients with vascular malformations were enrolled in the study: 9 women and 3 men. The mean participant age was 23±18 years; the age range was 6 to 59 years. Compared with healthy tissue, MSOT revealed significantly higher mean HbO₂:HbR ratios for AVMs (1.82±0.08 vs 0.89±0.03; P <.001) and VMs (1.12±0.04 vs 0.89±0.03; P =.001). In addition, MSOT was able to differentiate AVMs from VMs on the basis of significantly higher mean HbO₂:HbR ratios for AVMs vs VMs (1.82±0.08 vs 1.12±0.04, respectively; P <.001).

The investigators concluded that MSOT may become a promising and useful tool for the noninvasive diagnosis and monitoring of vascular malformations both before and after treatment.

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Reference

Masthoff M, Helfen A, Claussen J et al. Use of multispectral optoacoustic tomography to diagnose vascular malformations [published online September 26, 2018]. JAMA Dermatol. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2018.3269