Heart failure and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations in a patient with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia type 2

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal-dominantly inherited vascular-malformation syndrome associated with gene mutations including ENG, ACVRL1 and SMAD4 gene. Clinically indistinguishable HHT1 and HHT2 are caused by mutations in ENG and ACVRL1 gene, respectively. Generally, pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are rare manifestations of HHT related to ACVRL1 gene mutations. We described a female patient with HHT2 whose clinical features included epistaxis, mucocutaneous telangiectases, systemic AVMs and PAH. She also suffered from severe iron deficiency anemia and recurrent heart failure. A genetic mutation analysis disclosed a missense mutation in exon 7 of ACVRL1 gene in this patient and her daughter. A nonsense mutation in exon 7 of ACVRL1 gene was detected in her brother and her niece. This case supports that PAVMs and PAH can be rare manifestations of HHT2 patients.