Acquired tufted angioma - a case report and review of the literature

Acquired tufted angioma is an unusual vascular proliferation first described by Wilson Jones in 1976 and further characterised in 1989. Lesions previously described as progressive capillary haemangioma and in the Japanese literature as angioblastoma (Nakagawa)  appears to be identical to the acquired tufted angioma.

This lesion presents clinically as a slowly spreading erythematous macules and papules, predominantly in the neck and upper trunk. There may also be raised papules resembling a pyogenic granuloma. With the association of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), pathologists are justifiably suspicious when diagnosing acquired vascular lesions, especially in the adolescents and young adults. This underlies the importance of defining new vascular lesions, especially the rarer entities, in this group where KS may be wrongly considered. We report a case of acquired tufted angioma in a 42 year old male.