Tissue maturation during the growth of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.

Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma involves a specific age group and changes from vascular tissue to fibrous tissue. The goal of this study was to investigate the correlation among tumor extension, the histologic characteristics of the tumor, and the patient's age. We performed a prospective study of 43 male patients with untreated juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (average age, 15.42 years). We correlated the patient's age with the extension of the tumor (analyzing the computed tomographic scan) and the immunohistologic characteristics of the tumor (morphological and morphometric analysis of the central portion of the tumor, the sphenopalatine foramen region). We observed that the larger the tumor, the smaller the number of vessels and cells, but the larger the fibrous component and the higher the grade of maturation of the tissue. The patient's age was not correlated with tumor extension or the histologic characteristics of the tumor. However, the grade of maturation of the tissue in the region of the sphenopalatine foramen was higher in larger tumors.