While these findings have transformed the understanding of the genetic risks for intracranial aneurysms, considerable work remains, note the researchers. "These five findings explain about 10 percent of genetic risk of suffering an aneurysm," Gunel said. "This is 10 percent more than we understood just a couple of years ago, but there is a long way to go."

Lifton agrees: "While much remains to be done, this study provides fundamental new clues about the causes of this catastrophic disease that point to new opportunities for early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention."

The median age when aneurismal hemorrhagic stroke occurs is 50 years old, and there are typically no warning signs. In the majority of cases, the resulting strokes cause death or severe brain damage. Without a way to diagnose aneurysms prior to these events, physicians have been mostly left to respond after the fact, once the damage has largely been done, Gunel said.

"Although we face many more challenges, we now achieved the first steps necessary to attain over a decade long goal of early diagnosis and biology-based treatments of aneurysms," he said.

Source: Yale University