Comparison of Effects between Clopidogrel and Cilostazol on Cerebral Perfusion in Nonsurgical Adult Patients with Symptomatically Ischemic Moyamoya Disease: Subanalysis of a Prospective Cohort.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Adult patients with symptomatically ischemic moyamoya disease (MMD) initially undergo medical treatment alone including antiplatelet drugs when symptomatic cerebral hemispheres do not exhibit hemodynamic compromise. The purpose of the present study subanalyzing the same patient cohort used in a previous study was to determine which antiplatelet drug, clopidogrel or cilostazol, provides better improvement of cerebral perfusion in such patients.

METHODS: All patients without cerebral misery perfusion on 15 O gas positron emission tomography (PET) did not undergo revascularization surgery and were treated with medication alone, including antiplatelet therapy. Patients ≥50years and <50years initially received clopidogrel and cilostazol, respectively. When a patient suffered side effects of an antiplatelet drug, they were switched to the other antiplatelet drug. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the symptomatic hemisphere was measured at inclusion and at 2years after inclusion using 15 O gas PET.

RESULTS: Of 68 patients, 31 and 38 were treated with clopidogrel and cilostazol, respectively, for 2years after inclusion. For patients treated with clopidogrel, CBF did not differ between first and second PET. For patients treated with cilostazol, CBF was significantly greater in the second PET than in the first PET. On multivariate analysis, cilostazol administration was an independent predictor of CBF improvement in the symptomatic hemisphere (95% confidence interval, 1.34-139.20; P =.0271).

CONCLUSIONS: Cilostazol improves cerebral perfusion better than clopidogrel in adult patients with symptomatically ischemic MMD not accompanied by misery perfusion.