Angiographic detection of cerebral cavernous malformations with C-arm cone beam CT imaging in three patients.

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CMs) are typically not seen during conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and are therefore classically referred to as angiographically occult malformations. We present three cases in which DSA with selective intra-arterial contrast injection in the common carotid artery and C-arm cone beam CT imaging was able to demonstrate a CM. In addition, an associated developmental venous anomaly (DVA) was present in all three cases, although detected by MRI in only one of them. In light of this finding, we suspect that the incidence of DVA associated with CM is probably higher than previously reported.