Symptoms
Typical symptoms are:
Strokes (sustained weakness or numbness in an arm or leg, difficulty speaking, visual abnormalities or problems walking)
Transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs (temporary stroke-like symptoms that don't last long)
Headaches
Progressive cognitive or learning impairment
Children also often experience temporary weakness in one or more of their extremities during strenuous physical activity or when crying. Adults can also present with brain hemorrhage (from the fragile moyamoya vessels or from aneurysms) causing neurologic symptoms in addition to nonhemorrhagic strokes, TIAs and headaches.
Moyamoya sometimes occurs along with other disorders such as Down Syndrome, brain AVMs (arteriovenous malformations), neurofibromatosis, sickle cell disease and prior radiation for brain tumors.