This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Ziv J Haskal Assuming that you are symptomatic and wishing to explore CCSVI treatment, you've had enough done ( with that MRV ) to move ahead and discuss venographic interventions ( treatment ) with a qualified interventional radiologist.

Ziv J Haskal Ms Rowe-- these are 'early days' with respect to many aspects of ccsvi, of course-- science, research, defining outcome and predicting who will most benefit, durability, etc. There is not uniformity to what and how extensively to treat duri...ng venography-- there are mutiple causes of vein compression-- some which will not improve with just a balloon. A real meticulousness has to be part of therapy, lest one over or undertreat. An example: In one week, 4 patients I recently treated had four wholly different causes of narrowings in the treated veins.

Interested IRs will resumably gain experience over time as we teach them.

Ziv J Haskal The Endovascular Today article is a good and measured article, though not peer-reviewed. Use it as a useful starting tool, but recognize that you are still likely, in these early days, to need to directly approach an experienced interventional radiologist about potential treatment-- and one who is committed to become g...ood at it.

There are multiple and different causes and levels of compression or stenosis in the affected veins: treatment, diagnosis, efficacy and durability are all affected by technique and care.

To maximize potential treatment benefit, it should be done carefully and methodically. This is important for individual patients, (and the progress, for all others that follow).

These are early days, yes, but the benefits, when we see them, are amazing-- so much so that it has become a consuming clinical and transformative treatment area for me (and my practice).

Continue to encourage the science, as you use your advocate voices, and seek therapy.

Ziv J Haskal MD FSIR FAHA FACR
Professor of Radiology, Vice Chair
Chief, Vascular and Interventional Radiology
University of Maryland
Baltimore, MD

Ziv J Haskal Ms Puglisi, sorry about your phone tag. write us as [email edited out] if need be. I've added two ccsvi nurses, so we should be able get back to you much more readily, as for all patients. (We've also added many more times for actual treatment, so wait times should be short.)

Dr. Haskal received his undergraduate and medical degrees through the six-year program at Boston University, Boston, Mass., in 1986. He completed his fellowship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the radiology department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as an assistant professor in 1992. In 1999, he moved to Columbia University, New York City, as a full professor and Director of the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Since the fall of 2008, he has been at University of Maryland Medical Center.

Since 1994, Haskal has chaired or served on many Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), American Heart Association, Radiological Society of North America, American College of Cardiology, and American College of Radiology committees. In 2007, he chaired the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle, Wash. He is co-founder and co-director of the Global Embolization Symposium and Technologies (GEST) scientific meeting, a meeting that draws 900-1000 annual attendees from over 60 countries.

Dr. Haskal held a long-standing role as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology (CVIR) and editorial board and reviewer positions for more than 10 other peer-reviewed journals. During his editorial tenure, the impact factor of CVIR doubled.

He is now the Incoming Editor In Chief of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, the flagship journal of the SIR. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the SIR Research Foundation and SIR Executive Council.

Dr. Haskal is world-renown. He has published more that 250 scientific articles, abstracts, and books, in journals ranging from Radiology and Circulation, to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEM). His February research study in NEJM garnered more than 200 million media impressions.

Dr. Haskal also co-chaired and co-authored the influential American Heart Association/ American College of Cardiology’s 2005 comprehensive Guidelines for the Treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease (already cited by more than 450 subsequent peer-reviewed papers). Haskal has given more than 500 invited lectures worldwide, and been awarded numerous honorary fellowships, national and international awards. He has led, designed or participated in more than 30 clinical and animal research studies. His research and publications have spanned portal hypertension, venous disease, liver transplantation, peripheral vascular disease, uterine fibroid embolization, interventional oncology, human gene therapy, hemodialysis-related matters, numerous societal guidelines documents, etc.

Prior to moving to Maryland, he has been continuously named to local and national lists of “Top Doctors” and “Best Doctors” (since 1993).

I wonder in the interventional radiologists have their own professional forum, where they can network and exchange ideas (in "real time" rather than waiting for publications/conferences etc). This would catalyse the scientific process.

I know the Australian sonographers have their own forum, and us Aussie CCSVI-ers have been encouraging them to sign up and swap ideas within this forum. Hopefully this will facilitate the upskilling of diagnostic centres.

hwebb

That's great to know, cheer. Would my local vascular surgeon, who's onto CCSVI, be able to join that group and, if so, how? Thanks!