Good News!!

We went though the second CTA scan (1 per year since original diagnosis after her stroke.)

This year there was no significant changes (closures)!!! In fact the scan appeared to indicate she has GREATER blood flow than she did a year ago!!

This is without surgery, simply taking her blood thinners!!

Now as always, her doctor said she had "enough" blood flow at the time of original diagnosis and that we could choose which path to follow and she wanted to just avoid the surgery if possible.

If your doctor says there is not enough, please do everything possible to increase that blood flow, that is what the surgery is there for!!

Just one other happy thought to leave you with!! Her Doctor, who did his fellowship at Washington University (St Louis - http://www.mir.wustl.edu/research/internal.asp?NavID=707) told us 2 years ago, that the current research appeared to show a limited "growth cycle" or progression if you will of the disease.

This is NOT published fact, but early findings and it seemed to indicate a possible 2ish year window of growth/progression and then it slows considerably!!!

I have mentioned this in other posts where I found collaborating research, so hopefully we are past that window!!!

As always, thank you for your support!!!

Just a quick note, I subscribed to the comments but for some reason they do not appear to be showing up on a timely basis. If you leave a comment and it is a long time before I respond I apologize. We are doing our best to contribute AND retain privacy as much as we can, thx!!

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/41/8/1610

Regions of steal phenomenon are spatially correlated with elevated ADC in normal-appearing WM of patients with Moyamoya disease. This structural abnormality may reflect low-grade ischemic injury after exhaustion of the cerebrovascular reserve capacity.

Ok, I have to admit this article is beyond me a good bit! If I am interpreting this correctly, there is a limit to the amount of "reserve" capacity. If someone else can shed more light on this and put it into plain english I would appreciate it!!

(My best guess is the brain has a limited capacity on growing the extra veins and supplying blood via the indirect routes? But low-grade ischemic injury seems to indicate this has not been a severe complication.)