Diagnosis of moyamoya disease with magnetic resonance angiography. Stroke

Background and Purpose Present criteria for the diagnosis of moyamoya disease emphasize the use of conventional cerebral angiography as an indispensable requirement. How-ever, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is fast becom-ing a reliable diagnostic modality for occlusive cerebrovascular diseases. The purpose of this study is to assess the accuracy of MRA compared with conventional angiography. Methods Thirty-nine patients (23 children and 16 adults) with moyamoya disease confirmed by conventional angiogra-phy (78 side views) were examined with MRA (three-dimen-sional time-of-flight technique with a 256x256 or 256x512 matrix). Ti- and T2-weighted MR images were also taken. Results The stenotic or occlusive change at the carotid fork was clearly revealed by MRA, which correlated well with For the diagnosis of moyamoya disease, the Japa-nese committee on spontaneous occlusion ofthe circle of Willis (moyamoya disease), spon