This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Neurologists are brilliant diagnosticians. That’s their strength and, unfortunately, I think they’ve been wooed into the easy research funding of pharmaceutical research.”

That explains the reluctance and even outright dismissive approach Canadian neurologists have taken toward the “liberation” procedure for multiple sclerosis, he says.



Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/pa ... z1EPxNcvH9

I am sure some neurologists are brilliant. I am also sure most are not. In any field, there's only some that are brilliant, most are no different than you or me.

Code reminded them that the procedure has vastly improved in the short couple of years since Zamboni first tried it. Some doctors are using larger balloons. Some will also open all three veins in the neck, rather than focusing on one or two.

by all three veins in the neck, he means two jugulars in the neck and one azygous nowhere near the neck (another journalist error, not Dr. Code himself)

Code says the procedure will eventually be available in Canada, but it could take five, seven, even 10 years. In the meantime, he encouraged them to look at clinics in the United States rather than Europe or Latin American countries.

“We can be fussy,” he said. “We’ve got people close to home who are really good at this now.”

Total agreement here.

Saskatchewan, with the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world, ought to be at the leading edge of research, says Code.

“It’s time we started doing clinical trials here. It’s time we starting doing angioplasty of the veins in the neck here,” he said, emphasizing the word “here.”

RCTs may still be too soon and ethically murky but total agreement that this procedure should be available on a pay basis in Canada by now.

“This is a young person’s disease. It’s almost always young women. It takes people away from their careers and their families. It’s the most debilitating loss-of-work neuralgic aliment in Canada,”

As a (reasonably) young woman, not only does the disease take you away from family and work, but the treatment brings you back. Just saying, anecdotally and all, and it's not true for everyone, different lesion loads or years of damage, but what a difference....

Cece wrote:

Code reminded them that the procedure has vastly improved in the short couple of years since Zamboni first tried it. Some doctors are using larger balloons. Some will also open all three veins in the neck, rather than focusing on one or two.

by all three veins in the neck, he means two jugulars in the neck and one azygous nowhere near the neck (another journalist error, not Dr. Code himself)

Actually, that aspect has *not* changed. The azygous (I think Dr. Code corrected it to azygos) has always been worked on, since the beginning. It is more beneficial to treat and restenoses less. Maybe at the beginning it was being forgotten by the press because jugulars are more pronounceable. I don't think the interventionalists were forgetting. I don't think we can treat spinal veins.

erinc14 wrote:Neurologists are brilliant diagnosticians. That’s their strength and, unfortunately, I think they’ve been wooed into the easy research funding of pharmaceutical research.”

That explains the reluctance and even outright dismissive approach Canadian neurologists have taken toward the “liberation” procedure for multiple sclerosis, he says.



Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/pa ... z1EPxNcvH9

I used to be all for clinical trials but at this point I am not sure what they will accomplish. If the trial results are not favorable to the CCSVI crowd they will quickly be dismissed as biased or as a result of faulty testing so at this point they may just be a waste of money. Maybe they will be valuable to people with MS who are still on the fence and are undecided about getting the treatment but to others, unless the results are favorable, the trials will be nothing more than a "Roseian" endeavor.

..

Got to spend a couple of hours with Dr. Code yesterday, he stopped at our home while in southern California. We spoke about medical research. In this article, he was specifically referring to decades of pharmaceutically funded research that have provided MS specialists a wonderful income, and provided funding for their research facitlities at universities and hospitals. It's been a very adventagous relationship for researchers, MS specialists and pharma. Understandbly (to anyone who doesn't have MS, or love someone with MS), they are reticent to see this go.

Clinical trials involving testing and treatment for CCSVI are at BNAC, Albany (2), and starting at Stanford/Miami Baptist this week (finally, woot!) The doctors doing these trials had to find independent funding, no pharma money, no MS Society money, no NIH money. Not an easy task. I think I'll look to the vascular doctors who treat central venous stenosis and superior vena cava obstruction to report back on their independently funded trials.
cheer