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At the symposium, Dake at least acknowledged something that has concerned me a lot when he said he didn't know why he wasn't seeing much azygous trouble compared to Zamboni's 86%.

Since Zamboni has seen primarily Italians, and Dake primarily Americans, is it possible there's some genetic pool predisposing Italians to congenital azygous issues? I realize most Americans were Europeans 200 years ago, but still.

It seems that if there were such a difference then there would be obvious differences in symptoms between the two groups.

Rokkit

I agree, this quesiton nags at me too. I am meeting with Dr. Weinstock Guttman on Tuesday and it is one of my questions for her. I'll report back.

me too...Its the one thing that I can't explain away. Maybe there is a genetic link. I am from the UK and Dr D has seen stenosis in my jugulars but I have not had my azygous checked yet.

bestadmom wrote:I agree, this quesiton nags at me too. I am meeting with Dr. Weinstock Guttman on Tuesday and it is one of my questions for her. I'll report back.

Perfect! Thanks.

Rokkit

One thing to note is that the methods differ, i.e. it could be that azygous involvement shows up more in Doppler than in MRV? Note that this could be different in the two methods, i.e. azygous abnormalities could be more pronounced in Doppler (because the flow is not exclusively downward).

Another thing that nags me about the azygous is that if Zamboni find more involvement in SPMS patients than in RRMS patients, this speaks for an influence of something beyond genetics.

EDIT: Cheer just let me know that jugular valve problems and potential reflux are found in non-MS people, but this is not something Dr. Dake himself finds as he has so far only looked at those veins in patients with MS so far, so please ignore the following paragraph.

Btw, I believe Dake finds that jugular abnormalities are present in a larger percentage of healthy people than Zamboni. Again, it could be a difference in detection methods.

Actually, Dake hasn't seen jugular issues in "normal" people, Radeck. Not sure where you got that from. He's only tested self-referred MS patients and their relatives. One woman he tested was probable MS and her mother was CDMS and she had blocked jugulars.
And Zamboni is seeing the membranous issues in the azygos with venography- which is similar to MRV- and Dake has not seen that. It could well turn out to be a genetic variation, but we don't know yet.
more questions, but no concrete answers yet-
cheer

Hmmm---interesting! My husband Steve is 1/2 Sicilian, 1/4 Italian, 1/8 Irish, and 1/8 German. He's been diagnosed with SPMS, but frankly, it could be PPMS. His MS is old, 45+ years old...I guess we'll see about any azygos involvement at the end of the month.

Mormiles,

Sounds like you are saying your husband has had MS for 45 years? Or is he 45 years old?

MM, Steve is 56. The nearest we can come to a "beginning" of his MS was when he was 10 years old. He spent a week in the hospital with fever, malaise, and weakness (especially of the legs). Doctors thought he might have rheumatic fever, but there was never a conclusive diagnosis. Before 10, his only MS-ish symptoms were dyslexia and poor eye-hand coordination. The bladder urgency started in his late teens, and since then, he's had very slow progression that accelerated after 50.