The Significance of Immunohistochemical Staining, Including that for Glucose Transporter Protein Isoform 1, as Related to the Clinical and Angiographic Features of Adult Soft-Tissue Hemangioma and Arteriovenous Malformation in the Head and Neck

─ 83─ Department of Radiology and the Research Institute of Radiology, Departments of Pathology and Otolaryngology, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Korea This study was supported by a grant from the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea. (A080201). Received July 28, 2008 ; Accepted October 20, 2008 Address reprint requests to : Dae Chul Suh, M.D., Department of Radiology, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, 388-1 Pungnap2-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea. Tel. 82-2-3010-4366 Fax. 82-2-476-0090 E-mail: [email protected] Purpose: Glucose transporter protein isoform 1 (GLUT1) has been introduced to diagnose the hemangiomas of infancy. We investigated the usefulness of several immunohistochemical markers, including GLUT1, as related with the clinical and radiologic findings for making the diagnosis of adult subcutaneous vascular lesions in the head and neck. Materials and Methods: The 24 patients who underwent operations for soft tissue vascular lesion during the previous 7 years were included in this study. We analyzed the angiographic data, the clinical data and the immunohistochemical study results, including the GLUT1, S-100 protein and Movat pentichrome staining. Results: Twenty-two patients were confirmed to have arteriovenous malformation (AVM) and two hemangiomas, respectively. The number of lesions with positive Movat pentichrome, S-100 and GLUT1 staining in the patients with AVM and those patients with hemangioma were 22/22, 20/22 and 0/22, and 0/2, 0/2 and 0/2, respectively. For the 22 patients with AVMs, eight had a soft tissue vascular lesion at birth, 13 had cutaneous change and 15 had a change of the size of the lesion. For the 2 patients with one hemangioma each, neither patient had a soft tissue vascular lesion at birth, and both patients had cutaneous change and a change of the size of the lesion. The angiograms revealed a focal hypervascular mass (19/24) or diffuse staining (5/24) without showing significant features for making the definitive differential diagnosis. Conclusion: Our study revealed that none of the patients with AVM or hemangioma had GLUT1 positivity, and an arteriovenous malformation was more common than the adult-type hemangioma.