Contact endoscopic findings in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

BACKGROUND Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia is characterized by angiodysplastic lesions. So far, knowledge is limited on the vascular architecture and rate of occult manifestation of telangiectases. Contact endoscopy has not been used for this task before. METHODS Eleven patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia were examined with contact endoscopy to identify occult telangiectases. Sixty enoral telangiectases were studied in detail to characterize their architecture. RESULTS No occult telangiectases could be detected. In most cases, telangiectases consisting of a simple dilated loop were small. In contrast, most of the complex telangiectases were larger. CONCLUSIONS Visually normal areas in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia did not seem to have abnormal vascularization. Simple dilated capillary loops might be precursors of telangiectases with a more complex structure. Contact endoscopy seems to be a promising tool for the in vivo monitoring of therapies and the natural course of vascular disorders in humans and in animal models.