Dieulafoy lesions and gastrointestinal bleeding.

A Dieulafoy lesion is a dilated, submucosal artery that can erode through the adjacent gastrointestinal mucosa, resulting in spontaneous rupture and massive gastrointestinal bleeding. If misdiagnosed or left untreated, these lesions have up to an 80% mortality rate. Here we present the case of a 70-year-old woman with abdominal pain who was found to have a submucosal gastric vascular structure on computed tomography angiography of the pulmonary arteries. She underwent outpatient esophagogastroduodenoscopy to confirm the presence of a gastric Dieulafoy lesion and was successfully treated with mesenteric angiography and transarterial embolization.

Embolization of a hemorrhaging abdominal plexiform neurofibroma.

In rare instances, neurofibromas may spontaneously bleed. In this case, a 21-year-old woman with a known cutaneous neurofibroma presented with a rapidly enlarging right abdominal wall mass. After embolization of a focal pseudoaneurysm and the right internal mammary artery, her hemoglobin continued to decline. The right internal mammary artery and inferior epigastric artery were then embolized. The patient eventually underwent mass resection, hematoma evacuation, and flap reconstruction. Final surgical pathology confirmed the expected diagnosis of plexiform neurofibroma. The Schwann cells of plexiform neurofibromas, present in approximately 50% of patients with neurofibromatosis-1, have invasive and angiogenic properties, often resulting in hemorrhage.

Gastric bleeding in giant cell arteritis.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis that classically affects large- and medium-sized vessels in the head and neck but can also manifest extracranially. We report the case of an elderly man who presented with sharp substernal pain, dizziness, and visual changes. He was initially hypotensive and anemic, and imaging showed hemoperitoneum with possible extravasation. Celiac and gastric angiography demonstrated findings consistent with vasculitis and focal extravasation from a left gastric branch. Subsequent embolization was performed. After the procedure, the patient informed the care team that he had biopsy-proven GCA. Extracranial, celiac/mesenteric arteriopathy is a less common manifestation of GCA, and few reported cases include hemoperitoneum or involvement of second-order branches.