Hi dbab,
I had never heard of it either and my dr is only in on monday and tuesday, so I haven't heard from her either.
After a lot of googling around, AVM stands for arteriovenous malformation. The theory is that they are formed while you are in the womb, the arteries and veins don't connect right. You can have like a snarled mess of veins all trying to use an artery and it's like a bunch trying to use a straw.
However, a theory is that in the bowel, they can be caused from the colon having to contract a lot, like it weakens the veins.
The biggest worry would be if you had these in your brain or spine, where they can burst and hemorrhage.
In the bowel, they cause occult bleeding and anemia they can also hemmorrage there. There are different ways of treating them such as estrogen, cauterization, removal if they are bleeding a lot and not stopping on there own.
So, having them doesn't seem (from what I've read) much of a worry (in the GI tract) but I am concerned about the part of my report that says well, they might not be an AVM.
So, I don't know what the dr will want to do if anything but if I have a possible ulcer in my terminal ileum, then thats a whole different ball of wax.