February 26, 2021
New data from an observational study provide some support for antiplatelet therapy in patients with moyamoya disease, a rare arteriopathy characterized by progressive stenosis of the distal internal carotid artery and other basal cerebral arteries.
Patients with moyamoya disease prescribed antiplatelet therapy, tracked through the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database, had a significantly lower risk of death than those who didn’t receive antiplatelet therapy (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.70-0.84). The largest reduction in mortality was seen in patients who were prescribed the phosphodiesterase inhibitor cilostazol (HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.49-0.68).
Based on their findings, “antiplatelet therapy generally, and cilostazol particularly, shows observational evidence of potential benefit as medical treatment for patients with moyamoya disease,” write Woo-Keun Seo, MD, PhD (Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea), and colleagues in their study published Feb