Glomeruloid haemangioma: a possible consequence of elevated VEGF in POEMS and Erdheim-Chester disease

Glomeruloid haemangioma (GH) is considered a specific marker of POEMS syndrome, despite some published GH cases unrelated to POEMS syndrome. To present two cases with GH and atypical presentations of Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) or POEMS syndrome, as well as a retrospective monocentric study of histologically-confirmed GH. Clinical, biological and histological data of the patients is presented. In addition to the two presented cases, 11 GH histologically-confirmed cases were retrospectively identified. Six patients were female (46.2%; 95 CI: 12-64.9) and median age was 54 years (31-85). For 11 patients (84.6%; 95 CI: 65-104.2), a diagnosis of POEMS syndrome was retained, one patient had autoimmune hepatitis, and another had ECD. GH was localised to the trunk in 10 cases (76.9%; 95 CI: 54-99) and the legs in the other three. The median number of haemangiomas in the cohort was three (SD: 3.08). Median level of VEGF was 1,490 (610-12,000) ng/mL. All immunohistochemical staining for human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) was negative. Of the 13 cases of GH, of which two were not clear-cut POEMS syndrome, we report the first case of GH associated with ECD. In this cohort, all patients had high serum levels of VEGF but no in situ HHV-8 latent infection. We hypothesise that GH might be linked to a high level of VEGF in these two rare diseases.