To the surprise of almost no one in North America, using a balloon catheter to correct small areas of vein narrowing when found in the heads of persons with MS does not help their multiple sclerosis, according to a small but (finally) well controlled trial. So far, I only have read a description of a poster presentation at the San Diego meeting this weekend, with nothing more on the details to read today. Hopefully a full paper will be vetted soon enough.
Those of us who were investigating new treatments back in the eighties will remember the Los Angeles surgeon who got in big trouble for performing vertebral artery surgery on MS patients over 25 years ago. Vascular theories of MS recur periodically, and given the distribution of the lesions, there may be a truth in there somewhere. But it is not likely to do with the kinds of arteries or veins one can fix with a knife or a catheter.
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POSTER
P04.273– “Percutaneous Transluminal Venous Angioplasty (PTVA) is Ineffective in Correcting Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) and May Increase Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Disease Activity in the Short Term: Safety and Efficacy Results of the 6–Month, Double–Blinded, Sham–Controlled, Prospective, Randomized Endovascular Therapy in MS (PREMiSe) trial” – Robert Zivadinov, Buffalo, NY
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