44213_Book_Barrow #2-2006 12/13/13 2:02 PM Page 12
by Catherine Menor
Moyamoya disease Barrow a leader in treating rare disease that shows up as a “puff of smoke” on brain scans ■ Raquel Gibson, Casa Grande, could be the poster child for a rare vascular brain disorder called moyamoya disease: She is a woman in her 30s of Asian descent who suffered a stroke despite having none of the expected risk factors. And, though she is a nurse, she had never heard of moyamoya disease until her diagnosis in 2012. The doctor who diagnosed Gibson told her there was nothing that could be done for her. He counseled her to enjoy the rest of her life—from six months to two years at best, he said. Her husband, Wayne, believed there must be an answer to his wife’s condition. He consulted his company’s “Best Doctors” program and was referred to Robert Spetzler, MD, at Barrow Neurological Institute. Dr. Spetzler sent the couple on to John Wanebo, MD, a Barrow neurosurgeon who in 2001 did a cerebrovascular fellowship at Barrow under Dr. Spetzler’s guidance. Dr. Wanebo has become Barrow’s resident moyamoya expert. He developed an interest in the disease while serving in the Navy and seeing cases like Gibson’s in patients of Asian descent. “The disease causes the internal carotid artery in the brain to block off,” Dr. Wanebo says of the unusual vascular disorder. “Moyamoya occurs so slowly that the body develops collateral blood vessels to compensate for the loss of blood flow to the brain. Those tiny vessels look like a puff of smoke on an xray, which is what ‘moyamoya’ means in Japanese.” While there is no cure for moyamoya disease, neurosurgeons can perform bypasses—either direct or indirect—to increase blood flow to the brain and prevent stroke, the calling card of the disease.
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Barrow Magazine Moyamoya disease
Moyamoya Disease Diagnosis and Treatment John E. Wanebo Nadia Khan Joseph Zabramski Robert F. Spetzler
Barrow neurosurgeons Robert Spetzler, MD, John Wanebo, MD, and Joseph Zabramski, MD, along with Nadia Khan, MD, of University Children’s Hospital Zurich, recently published the first North American professional book on moyamoya disease in 12 years. Moyamoya Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment was released in October.