Segmental congenital vascular anomaly with atrophy, ulceration, and scarring (SeCVAUS): Case series and review of literature.

Abstract

Background: Next-generation sequencing has greatly increased our understanding of vascular birthmarks. Many port-wine birthmarks are due to somatic mutations in GNAQ/GNA11 exon 183, but other genomic causes have been identified. Most congenital hemangiomas are due to somatic mutations in GNAQ/GNA11 at exon 209. Although genomically distinct, clinical overlap of congenital hemangiomas and port-wine birthmarks has occasionally been described.

Objective: We report a case series of a unique segmentally distributed vascular anomaly with overlapping characteristics of port-wine birthmarks and congenital hemangiomas with other distinctive features including ulceration, atrophy, and scarring.

Methods: This was a multicenter study with retrospective identification of patients via a detailed review of medical records. We also reviewed previously published cases.

Results: The clinical, histological, radiological, and genomic characteristics of 19 new and 13 previously reported cases characterized by segmental distribution, sharply demarcated borders, with variable thickening are presented. All cases had central atrophy with or without episodic ulceration. Those with genomic studies (13 out of 32) had somatic activating missense mutations in GNA11 or GNAQ codon 209.

Conclusions: We describe the features and propose a descriptive name segmental congenital vascular anomaly with atrophy, ulceration, and scarring (SeCVAUS) for this condition.