My cousin in Italy has just been diagnosed with Moyamoya. I am getting together my medical records to send there, as her docs are at a loss for what to do. Her mother is a sister of my mom, and her father is a brother of my dad, so genetically we're more similar than most cousins.

there is a genetic study going on with Stanford and the University of Texas. I happened to test positive....so I am actively following this. They will want a complete history of your family and can (spit test) them to see if they too, carry the gene. The gene does NOT cause MM, but it is linked to Vascular disorders and presents many times in Heart diseases (ie...vascular) My father's family had a long history of heart problems and he passed the genetic code to me and I ended up with MM! My uncle tested positive, but has had no health issues. From my 5 kids, only my teenaged twins are carrying the gene...so we will watch them and if they ever have issues, take those issues much more seriously.

Sorry that you seem to have more MM in your family than most.

Best regards, Diane

hello Diane,

I have mm & want to start family planning, but I am nervous I could possibly pass this on to my future children.  can you tell me what the spit test is called?  would I just ask for vascular disorder test?

thank you!

April,

Only a couple of physicians/institutions in the country are doing genetic research in the US.  Dr. Dianna Milewicz spoke at the 2012 Moyamoya.com Gathering and you can see the video of her presentation here:

http://www.moyamoya.com/videos.html

Hope this helps some,

DJ