What are the differences between childhood brain AVMs compared to adults?

Cerebral arteriovenous malformation (cAVM) is a congenital disorder that results from abnormal development and differentiation of cerebral blood vessels during embryonic life. Childhood cAVM develops or is detected in childhood; while adult cAVM can be considered as not developing and not detected in childhood. When both are compared in childhood, more than 90% of childhood cAVM are symptomatic in childhood, while adult cAVM are asymptomatic in childhood, and these two points suggest that there are still some differences between childhood and adult cAVM. Specifically, the differences are: (1) Childhood cAVM is the most common hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease in childhood, accounting for about half or even more. In contrast, the most common spontaneous hemorrhagic disorders in adults are hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage and aneurysm. (2) Childhood cAVM is more likely to bleed: 60-80% of childhood cAVM manifests as bleeding, compared to about 40-50% in adults. Bulk reports show a gradual decrease in the rate and risk of bleeding from children to adults. The current literature shows an annual bleeding rate of about 2-4% for adult cAVM compared to 4-8% for children, a figure twice as high as for adults. This can be interpreted to mean that cAVM that is prone to bleeding is more likely to bleed in the early years, i.e., in childhood. And once they have bled, the chances of rebleeding will be significantly higher. The risk of rebleeding is further increased for those who have bled twice. (3) Longer life expectancy in children is associated with higher overall bleeding and rebleeding risk. The longer the follow-up period, the higher the overall risk of bleeding. the bleeding rate is approximately nearly 30% at 10 years, approximately 40% at 20 years, and over 60% at 30 years. (4) Factors predisposing to bleeding: After an extensive literature review and statistical analysis, children are a high risk factor for bleeding per se, followed by those who have already bled, and also include single deep drainage veins, deep locations (thalamus, paraventricular, subcurtain). And the rate of cAVM located deep is higher in children than in adults. (5) The prognosis of un/partially treated children with cAVM is poor, and cAVM has a higher lethal correlation for children. The Finnish study showed that more than half of untreated childhood AVMs died during follow-up, and more than 80% were due to AVMs. These rates are significantly higher than in adults. (6) In addition to bleeding, the rate of future new-onset epilepsy varies among untreated cAVM. approximately 40% of cAVM up to age 20 years develop future new-onset epilepsy, whereas less than 10% of adult cAVM over age 30 years develop future new-onset epilepsy. (7) More than 60% of new-onset cAVM (no previous imaging findings suggestive of cAVM, later on cAVM appears for unknown reasons) occur in the pediatric population, and the rate of multiple cAVM in children is also higher than that in adults. Active research is currently underway internationally, including at our center. (8) Another phenomenon is cAVM growth, which refers to the slow enlargement of the arteriovenous malformation volume, the increasing number of malformed vessels, and even the appearance of new blood supplying arteries and draining veins. More than half of the cAVM growths are clearly reported to occur in children, which is a very high rate given that cAVM in children accounts for less than 20% of the entire age group. The above is roughly the difference between childhood cerebral AVMs and adults compared in terms of natural history, malformation characteristics, and prognostic regression. It also determines that there are some differences in treatment attitudes and treatment options for children and adults with cAVM.