COMPUTER-SIMULATION OF CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW IN MOYAMOYA AND THE RESULTS OF SURGICAL THERAPIES

Moyamoya is the disease which involves the terminal portions of the in ternal carotid or origins of the middle or anterior cerebral arteries. The posterior communicating arteries are also involved, but not the v ertebrals or the basilar artery. The disease occurs more commonly in f emales than males and it has two age peaks at less than 10 and 40 year s. Over the years many treatment options or procedures have been advoc ated for this disease either with direct bypasses or indirect revascul arization procedures or both in combination. Whether one procedure is better than another is a matter of question and still to be determined . Along with it, there are various diagnostic and research work have b een done for the etiology and the management of this disease. We have tried to implement a computer model of cerebral blood flow in order to assess and predict the flow in this disease process. At this time to know and predict the effectivity of certain types of offered treatment of Moyamoya disease is only to evaluate patients clinically with long term follow ups and at some interval after surgery with angiography o r blood Bow determinations. This study tries to focus on the use of co mputerized model of predicting cerebral blood Bow which tries to asses s the cerebral how and decide which treatment option would be the best for a particular patient. After various computer simulations the bloo d flow following each treatment option is detected and the situation w hich offers the best treatment in a particular case is offered to the patient. To confirm the use of utility of this computer model a larger population of patients with Moyamoya disease need to be evaluated. (C ) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.