How does angiodysplasia appear at angiography?
- Angiodysplasia appears as a vascular tuft or tangle of vessels resulting from a local mass of irregular vessels, best visualized in the arterial phase.
- It demonstrates early and intensely filling veins because of direct communication of the artery to the veins without intervening capillaries.
- It typically shows persistent opacification beyond the normal venous phase (slowly emptying vein) likely from venous tortuosity (ectasia).
- At angiography, bleeding angiodysplasia shows extravasation of blood in which the blood is seen to actively pool near the vascular tuft.
- Angiodysplasias bleed only intermittently, however, and demonstrate extravasation of contrast in only approximately 10% of cases at angiography.
