This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Neither Kaplan nor Wright recommend the procedure, called CCSVI (the acronym for the name). Serious complications have been reported, and neither national interventional radiology nor cardiology groups support it, Kaplan said. She noted that anyone who is interested in it should enter a study.

When conclusive evidence
is lacking, SIR believes that these
often difficult decisions are best
made by individual patients, their
families, and their physicians.

1. SIR recognizes the urgent need for
more effective treatments for MS
patients and the public’s interest
in rapidly making such therapies
available to this patient group.

2. SIR recognizes that patients with
MS constitute a particularly vulnerable
population, whose safety
must be protected as new therapeutic approaches are evaluated.

3. At present, SIR considers the published
literature to be inconclusive
on whether CCSVI is a clinically
important factor in the development
and/or progression of MS,
and on whether balloon angioplasty
and/or stent placement are
clinically effective in patients with
MS.

4. Interventional radiologists possess
the ideal skill set to provide
interventional MS therapy with
maximum safety and effectiveness
when clinically appropriate.

5. SIR strongly supports the urgent
performance of high-quality clinical
research to determine the safety and
efficacy of interventional MS therapies,
and is actively working to promote
and expedite the completion
of the needed studies.