Experts To Examine New Treatment Options For Vascular Anomalies

Main Category: Vascular
Article Date: 09 Oct 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Nearly 70 experts from Germany, Italy, China, Brazil and the United States will gather Oct. 9-10 in Little Rock to share their research findings and innovative approaches to treatment of vascular anomalies of the head and neck.

The Second International Symposium on Hemangiomas and Vascular Malformations of the Head and Neck: Controversies and Innovations is sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Gresham T. Richter, M.D., assistant professor in the department, is symposium chairman. The event is being held in collaboration with the University of Marburg, Germany.

"The symposium will present some of the latest research available on vascular anomalies, which will affect the way these problems are treated," said James Y. Suen, M.D., professor and chairman of the UAMS Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

"The conference goal is to promote dialogue and collaboration among international clinical experts and basic scientists who study these lesions," Richter said.

Information presented at the conference will include research conducted by researchers at the Vascular Anomalies Center staffed by UAMS physicians seeing patients at both UAMS and its pediatric affiliate Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH). The researchers will reveal the presence of hormone receptors in vascular malformations that may explain why they expand rapidly during puberty and pregnancy, or in women who take birth control pills.

Additional research from UAMS/ACH physician-scientists will include their grant-supported work on experimental models of vascular anomalies, how nanoparticles can be used to treat these disorders, and how a common heart medication can control complicated hemangiomas in infants.

Researchers will also discuss their identification of molecular changes that support the clinical impression that arterio-venous malformations (AVM) have similarities to cancers and require an aggressive approach to treatment. The center's interventional radiologists will also describe their work on controlling AVM with new vascular embolization materials.

Source
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences