jimmylegs wrote:i believe so. that's the thing that's driving people crazy.
if you do not have pre-existing ms, and your veins are blocked, there's treatment. if you do have an MS dx, your symptoms get tossed in the MS round file and they don't bother to think of any venous issues as a treatable comorbidity.
the argument appears to be, 'there is no proof that ccsvi causes/is related to/affects ms, therefore we will not pay for ms patients to be tested, until further research to establish the degree of association is completed'. what i find weird is the general reluctance nationwide to start looking into it. with proper replication studies.
beyond that there is the whole issue of figuring out, perhaps through some sort of retrospective study, can we get a better handle on who the treatment can help and who might be disappointed or worse, actually hurt by it?
if each province and territory in canada said okay, starting today we will pay for ccsvi testing and treatment for every interested ms patient in canada, i wonder how that would pan out.
gotta split for work!
My guess is that part of the reason the blockages are not immediately treated is because it has not been proven that they actually cause symptoms. There were people tested for CCSVI,who did not have MS, that were found to have blockages yet had absolutley no symptoms. It would be interesting to know what percentage of blockages they found in the normal controls. I think that in order for a vascular surgeon to address the blockages he would need to feel the blockages were in some way causing the symptoms. So I think it still goes back to somehow proving that CCSVI in some way is not only associatedwith having MS but ALSO that it is the cause of disabilty. Hope this makes sense!
