General Questions about Moyamoya

Moyamoya is a progressive disease that does not improve without treatment. While moyamoya itself is not curable, surgery to provide alternative blood flow to the brain prevents the symptoms related to moyamoya and can provide an excellent long term outcome with significant stroke risk reduction.

Moyamoya disease runs in families in approximately 8-10% of the time in Dr. Steinberg's series. We recommend that if more than one family member has moyamoya, others be tested for the disease, especially if there are symptoms. Screening tests for family members might include an MRI/MRA head scan.

Neuropsychological assessment is an evaluation of your cognitive abilities or thinking skills. Examples of such abilities are memory, planning/organizing and language. Cognition may be changed by moyamoya disease. The assessment helps the team know if any of these abilities have been affected. It also provides documentation or a baseline of cognitive abilities before surgery. This can be compared to the results of a second assessment that is performed after surgery.

Patients most commonly present with strokes, mini-strokes (TIA's) and/or headaches. Stroke symptoms can include numbness or weakness in the extremities, visual changes and/or difficulty speaking or understanding words.