What question did this study set out to answer?

To compare the prevalence and incidence of hypertension in pediatric patients with moyamoya disease against the general pediatric population.

February 9, 2026

Increased burden of systemic hypertension among pediatric patients with moyamoya disease: a population-based analysis of prevalence and incidence

Key Points

To compare the prevalence and incidence of hypertension in pediatric patients with moyamoya disease against the general pediatric population.
Analyzed data from South Korea National Health Insurance Service (2008–2019) for MMD patients and (2010) for general population.
Used ICD-10 codes to define moyamoya disease and identify hypertension cases.
Calculated prevalence and incidence rates by age group (1–4, 5–9, 10–14, 15–19 years).
Employed indirect standardization for comparing rates between cohorts.
3645 pediatric patients with moyamoya disease were included, with a higher proportion aged 5–14 and more females.
Chronic kidney disease and other comorbidities were more prevalent in MMD patients.
Hypertension prevalence was 43.79 times greater, while the incidence was 31.33 times higher compared to the general population.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE The association between moyamoya disease (MMD) and hypertension has been studied as hospital-based case series without comparison to the general population. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence and incidence of hypertension between pediatric patients with MMD and the general pediatric population. METHODS Data from the South Korea National Health Insurance Service was used to compare hypertension prevalence and incidence between pediatric patients with MMD (2008–2019) and the general pediatric population (2010). MMD was defined using ICD-10 code I67.5 and the Rare and Intractable Disease code V128. Hypertension was identified by ICD-10 codes I10–I15 alongside antihypertensive medication claims. Prevalence and incidence rates were calculated for each year and age group (1–4, 5–9, 10–14, and 15–19 years). Indirect standardization was used to calculate prevalence and incidence rate ratios between the pediatric MMD cohort and the general population. RESULTS The study included 3645 pediatric patients (2041 female, mean age 11.26 years) with MMD. Compared with the general pediatric population, there was a higher proportion of patients in the 5–14 years age range and more females in the MMD cohort. Chronic kidney disease, diabetes, renal artery stenosis, hyperthyroidism, and lupus were more prevalent comorbidities in patients with MMD. Hypertension prevalence and incidence were consistently higher in patients with MMD across all age groups. The standardized prevalence ratio was 43.79 (95% CI 40.56–47.01), indicating that patients with MMD had nearly 44 times higher prevalence of hypertension than expected. The standardized incidence ratio was 31.33 (95% CI 27.39–35.27), indicating that patients with MMD had approximately 31 times higher incidence of hypertension than expected. CONCLUSIONS Pediatric patients with MMD in the Korean population have a significantly higher hypertension burden and risk, emphasizing the need for prioritized hypertension management.

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Cite This Study

Kim et al. (Fri,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/698979f5f0ec2af6756e80ea https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3171/2025.10.peds25412

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