Prolonged/delayed cerebral hyperperfusion in adult patients with moyamoya disease with RNF213 gene polymorphism c.14576G>A (rs112735431) after superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis.

Objective: Superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) anastomosis is the standard surgical management for moyamoya disease (MMD), whereas cerebral hyperperfusion (CHP) is one of the potential complications of this procedure that can result in delayed intracerebral hemorrhage and/or neurological deterioration. Recent advances in perioperative management in the early postoperative period have significantly reduced the risk of CHP syndrome, but delayed intracerebral hemorrhage and prolonged/delayed CHP are still major clinical issues. The clinical implication of RNF213 gene polymorphism c.14576G>A (rs112735431), a susceptibility variant for MMD, includes early disease onset and a more severe form of MMD, but its significance in perioperative pathology is unknown. Thus, the authors investigated the role of RNF213 polymorphism in perioperative hemodynamics after STA-MCA anastomosis for MMD.

Methods: Among 96 consecutive adult patients with MMD comprising 105 hemispheres who underwent serial quantitative cerebral blood flow (CBF) analysis by N-isopropyl-p-[123I]iodoamphetamine SPECT after STA-MCA anastomosis, 66 patients consented to genetic analysis of RNF213. Patients were routinely maintained under strict blood pressure control during and after surgery. The local CBF values were quantified at the vascular territory supplied by the bypass on postoperative days (PODs) 1 and 7. The authors defined the radiological CHP phenomenon as a local CBF increase of more than 150% compared with the preoperative values, and then they investigated the correlation between RNF213 polymorphism and the development of CHP.

Results: CHP at POD 1 was observed in 23 hemispheres (23/73 hemispheres [31.5%]), and its incidence was not statistically different between groups (15/41 [36.6%] in RNF213-mutant group vs 8/32 [25.0%] in RNF213-wild type (WT) group; p = 0.321). CHP on POD 7, which is a relatively late period of the CHP phenomenon in MMD, was evident in 9 patients (9/73 hemispheres [12.3%]) after STA-MCA anastomosis. This prolonged/delayed CHP was exclusively observed in the RNF213-mutant group (9/41 [22.0%] in the RNF213-mutant group vs 0/32 [0.0%] in the RNF213-WT group; p = 0.004). Multivariate analysis revealed that RNF213 polymorphism was significantly associated with CBF increase on POD 7 (OR 5.47, 95% CI 1.06-28.35; p = 0.043).

Conclusions: Prolonged/delayed CHP after revascularization surgery was exclusively found in the RNF213-mutant group. Although the exact mechanism underlying the contribution of RNF213 polymorphism to the prolonged/delayed CBF increase in patients with MMD is unclear, the current study suggests that genetic analysis of RNF213 is useful for predicting the perioperative pathology of patients with MMD.