Functional neuroimagings "overview"

Abstract

Moyamoya disease is characterized by progressive vascular occlusion of the circle of the Willis accompanied by dilated perforating arteries, which are so-called moyamoya vessels, in the regions of basal ganglia and thalami [1]. These findings was defined by cerebral angiography and also classified into the Suzuki's angiographical stages. More recently, the stage of moyamoya disease using magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) was proposed as a less invasive assessment [2]. However, cerebral angiography and/or MRA cannot evaluate cerebral hemodynamics in patients with moyamoya disease, which should be assessed by functional neuroimagings such as 15 O-positron emission tomography (15 O-PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and perfusion magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography (MRI/CT). © 2010 Springer-Verlag Tokyo.