Asymptomatic Moyamoya Disease: Literature Review and Ongoing AMORE Study

• Published in: Neurologia medico-chirurgica Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 194 - 198
• Main Authors: Group, AMORE Study, KURODA, Satoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan The Japan Neurosurgical Society 2015; THE JAPAN NEUROSURGICAL SOCIETY
• Subjects: AMORE study; Asymptomatic Diseases; asymptomatic moyamoya disease; Humans; Moyamoya Disease - diagnosis; Moyamoya Disease - epidemiology; Moyamoya Disease - therapy; prognosis; Review
• ISSN: 0470-8105; 1349-8029; 1349-8029
• DOI: 10.2176/nmc.ra.2014-0305

Recent development of a non-invasive magnetic resonance examination has increased the opportunity to identify asymptomatic patients with moyamoya disease who have experienced no cerebrovascular events. However, their clinical features, prognosis, and treatment strategy are still unclear because of small number of subjects and short follow-up periods. Therefore, we have designed Asymptomatic Moyamoya Registry (AMORE) study in Japan. The objectives of this nation-wide, multi-center prospective study are to clarify long-term prognosis of asymptomatic patients with moyamoya disease and to determine the risk factors that cause ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in them. In this article, we review the published data on asymptomatic moyamoya disease and report the on-going multi-center prospective cohort study, AMORE study. We would like to emphasize the importance to determine the clinical features, prognosis, and treatment strategies of asymptomatic moyamoya disease in very near future.