Accurate diagnosis was not possible until the early 1970;s with the invention of the CT scanner the two scientists behind this won the Nobel prize in 1979, MRI scanning and CT scanners are now in most Hospitals and some clinics. AVMs have probably always existed as a birth defect, but not understood or identified as such until CT scans became more common. My particular issue was discovered in 1983, and a paper published in the Lancet saying they thought this was the case, mine was the second or third to be identified globally, Orbital varices are still listed as a very rare condition, Mr J Wright wrote a book published in 1997 in which my medical photos appear, the scans can be also found on line in an article written by Professor G Rose of Moorfields Hospital City Road London,