Multiple sclerosis patients may get some relief from severe fatigue from an experimental procedure to open blocked blood vessels in the chest and neck showed preliminary Stanford University research presented at the 23rd annual International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET) held in Miami from 16 to 18 January 2011.
A year after doctors used either angioplasty or stents to open blocked veins of 30 multiple sclerosis patients, they suffered about half the fatigue, on average, than they had before the treatment, according to data presented by Michael Dake, professor in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford University, School of Medicine, Stanford, USA. Patients with the most common type of multiple sclerosis— relapsing-remitting—benefitted most.
Treatment for chronic cerebrospinalvenous insufficiency is controversial, with some doctors doubting the existence of the condition. Stanford and the Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute in Miami, plan to begin a trial in 2011 to assess the condition and treatment with angioplasty. “If a person has multiple sclerosis and has a blood vessel obstruction, and if it is removed, we will look at whether we can we demonstrate objectively that there is improvement in blood flow,” Dake said.
The ISET meeting featured several presentations on chronic cerebrospinalvenous insufficiency. Among the speakers was Paolo Zamboni, University of Ferrara, Italy, a vascular surgeon who first proposed and is now testing the theory, also James F Benenati, president of the Society of Interventional Radiology.
Zamboni theorises that abnormal blood flow can damage the nervous system and lead to chronic cerebrospinalvenous insufficiency. He reported initial results in 2009, suggesting the existence of chronic cerebrospinalvenous insufficiency and that endovascular treatment relieved some multiple sclerosis symptoms and improved quality of life in certain patients.
