What is the cause of moyamoya syndrome?
The cause of the syndrome is unknown. The process of narrowing of the brain arteries seems to be a non-specific reaction of the brain’s blood vessels to a wide variety of stimuli, injuries, or genetic defects. For example, in our own series of patients, we have seen the syndrome in association with Asian birth (nine children), neurofibromatosis — the congenital condition that cases tumors to grow on nerves — (12), Down Syndrome ( a chromosome defect — 9 children), following cranial x-ray or chemotherapy treatments (10 children), etc. There is also an association with a previous history of surgery for congenital heart disease, suggesting that there may be a genetic defect in the blood vessel wall in these patients. But more than half of our children have no known cause for their moyamoya syndrome. Our adult patients have usually had no definite cause detected either, but there have been some associations — heavy cigarette smoking, the use of birth control pills in young women, and i
The cause of the syndrome is unknown. The process of narrowing of the brain arteries seems to be a non-specific reaction of the brain’s blood vessels to a wide variety of stimuli, injuries, or genetic defects. For example, in the first 100 patients in our own operative series, we have seen the syndrome in association with Asian birth (13 children), neurofibromatosis — the congenital condition that cases tumors to grow on nerves — (13), following cranial x-ray or chemotherapy treatments (10 children), Down Syndrome (a chromosome defect — 9 children), etc. There is also an association with a previous history of surgery for congenital heart disease, suggesting that there may be a genetic defect in the blood vessel wall in these patients. But around 50% of our children have no known cause for their moyamoya syndrome. Our adult patients have usually had no definite cause detected either, but there have been some associations — heavy cigarette smoking, the use of birth control pills in y
The cause of the syndrome is unknown. The process of narrowing of the brain arteries seems to be a non-specific reaction of the brain’s blood vessels to a wide variety of stimuli, injuries, or genetic defects. For example, in the more than 300 patients in the operative series of my colleague Edward Smith and myself seen from 1985 to the present, the syndrome has been associated with neurofibromatosis — the congenital condition that cases tumors to grow on nerves — in 24 patients, with Asian ancestry in 28, with Down Syndrome (a chromosome defect) in 22 children, in hematologic disorders like sickle cell disease in 12, etc. There is also an association with a previous history of surgery for congenital heart disease (14 patients), suggesting that there may be a genetic defect in blood vessel structure in these patients. But around 50% of our children have no known cause for their moyamoya syndrome. Our adult patients have usually had no definite cause detected either, but there have be