EPIDEMIOLOGIC SURVEY OF MOYAMOYA-DISEASE IN KOREA

To both clarify the current clinico-epidemiological features of Moyamo ya disease in Korea as well as compare these cases with Japanese patie nts, 451 cases were collected from 26 Korean major neurosurgical insti tutes and 296 definite cases were analyzed statistically. Although the Korean age distribution patterns of Moyamoya disease showed two peaks , similar to Japanese patients, the Korean pattern was shifted to the right thus indicating Korean adult population to be 20% higher than th at of Japanese patients. The female/male ratio was 1:3, which was slig htly less than that for Japanese. The family occurrence rate in Korean s was 1.8%. The incidence of cerebral infarction and bleeding in Korea ns was higher while transient ischemic attack (TIA) and seizure were l ess than that of Japanese. The incidence of infarction in children and of hemorrhage in children and adults were also statistically higher i n Koreans. The incidence of hemorrhage was higher in females than in m ales. Both the age at onset and sex affected the disease type. Single encephalo-duro-arterio-synangiosis (EDAS) was performed on 87.6% of al l surgical cases. Although the incidence of bleeding was higher in Kor ea, the outcomes of the patients were similar to that of the Japanese patients. Although Korean Moyamoya disease showed a relatively higher incidence of hemorrhage and adult onset, the overall clinical backgrou nd was similar to that of Japanese patients. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.