Moyamoya vasculopathy – Patient demographics and characteristics in the Finnish population:

Background and purposeMoyamoya vasculopathy, a rare steno-occlusive progressive cerebrovascular disorder, has not been thoroughly studied in Caucasian populations. We established a registry of Finnish patients treated at the Helsinki University Hospital, to collect and report demographic and clinical data.MethodsWe collected data both retrospectively and prospectively from all the patients with a moyamoya vasculopathy referred to our hospital between January 1987 and December 2014. All patients underwent a neurological outpatient clinic visit.ResultsWe diagnosed 61 patients (50 females, 10 children) with moyamoya vasculopathy. The mean age at the disease-onset was 31.5 ± 17.9 years. The two most common presenting symptoms were ischemic stroke (n = 31) and hemorrhage (n = 8). Forty-four percent underwent revascularization surgery, and 70% were prescribed antithrombotic treatment.ConclusionsThe results support in part the Western phenotype of the disease considering the later presentation and larger female ...