Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is characterized by the presence of multiple arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) that lack intervening capillaries and result in direct connections between arteries and veins. The most common clinical manifestation is spontaneous and recurrent nosebleeds (epistaxis) beginning on average at age 12 years. Telangiectases (small AVMs) are characteristically found on the lips, tongue, buccal and gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa, face, and fingers. The appearance of telangiectases is generally later than epistaxis but may be during childhood. Large AVMs occur most often in the lungs, liver, or brain; complications from bleeding or shunting may be sudden and catastrophic. A minority of individuals with HHT have GI bleeding, which is rarely seen before age 50 years.

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is characterized by the presence of multiple arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) that lack intervening capillaries and result in direct connections between arteries and veins. The most common clinical manifestation is spontaneous and recurrent nosebleeds (epistaxis) beginning on average at age 12 years. Telangiectases (small AVMs) are characteristically found on the lips, tongue, buccal and gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa, face, and fingers. The appearance of telangiectases is generally later than epistaxis but may be during childhood. Large AVMs occur most often in the lungs, liver, or brain; complications from bleeding or shunting may be sudden and catastrophic. A minority of individuals with HHT have GI bleeding, which is rarely seen before age 50 years.

Congenital alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is characterized histologically by failure of formation and ingrowth of alveolar capillaries that then do not make contact with alveolar epithelium, medial muscular thickening of small pulmonary arterioles with muscularization of the intraacinar arterioles, thickened alveolar walls, and anomalously situated pulmonary veins running alongside pulmonary arterioles and sharing the same adventitial sheath. Less common features include a reduced number of alveoli and a patchy distribution of the histopathologic changes. The disorder is associated with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the neonate and shows varying degrees of lability and severity (Boggs et al., 1994). Affected infants present with respiratory distress resulting from pulmonary hypertension in the early postnatal period, and the disease is uniformly fatal within the newborn period (Vassal et al., 1998). Additional features of ACDMPV include multiple congenital anomalies affecting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and musculoskeletal systems, as well as disruption of the normal right-left asymmetry of intrathoracic or intraabdominal organs (Sen et al., 2004).

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is characterized by the presence of multiple arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) that lack intervening capillaries and result in direct connections between arteries and veins. The most common clinical manifestation is spontaneous and recurrent nosebleeds (epistaxis) beginning on average at age 12 years. Telangiectases (small AVMs) are characteristically found on the lips, tongue, buccal and gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa, face, and fingers. The appearance of telangiectases is generally later than epistaxis but may be during childhood. Large AVMs occur most often in the lungs, liver, or brain; complications from bleeding or shunting may be sudden and catastrophic. A minority of individuals with HHT have GI bleeding, which is rarely seen before age 50 years.