Increase in age at onset of moyamoya disease in China over 25 years

Abstract

Background: To explore whether the age at onset (AAO) of Chinese patients with moyamoya disease (MMD) increased over time due to a reduced exposure to leptospiral infection. Methods: We performed an independent, multicenter, retrospective study based on data from patients with MMD who initially attended four tertiary hospitals in Hubei, China, from 1996 to 2020. After stratifying the year of MMD onset into five periods (1996–2000, 2001–2005, 2006–2010, 2011–2015, and 2016–2020), we analyzed the temporal trends in AAO and compared different classes of AAO (early-onset, < 20 years; intermediate-onset, 20–49 years; late-onset, ≥ 50 years) in each period. Results: We included 1858 patients in this study, with 878 women and 980 men. Their median (IQR) AAO was 47 (39‒55) years. The case AAO significantly increased at the rate of 0.94 years per year (r = 0.406, p