Of Interest to MSers

There have been quite a few interesting developments related to MS and CCSVI lately, all gleaned from TiMS discussions, including:

1. Here in the most recent postings of Dr. Sclafani's thread is an interesting discussion about some venous anomalies that may be missed when the catheter venography is done through the right femoral (as was done in my case) rather than the left: http://www.thisisms.com/ftopic-10680-2010.html.  Going through the right femoral is easier than using the left, but going through the left femoral allows you to check some additional veins that may also cause poor blood drainage away from the central nervous system.  This is could mean that the 90-95% of CCSVI found in MSers by Dr. Simka's team may actually be low! 
2. As reported by the Dutch TiMSer joge, there is another site for CCSVI testing and treatment: Dr Beelen in Belgium is conducting CCSVI and screening AND treatment.  In a reply to a journal article (described in the next point below) Dr. Beelen says that his team has diagnosed 97 out of the 107 MS patients tested as having CCSVI... so the 90+ percent seems to be holding up very well in independent diagnostic centers: http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-118447-beelen.html#118447.
3. One of the recent active discussions (from which the point #2 above was taken) relates to an article written by doctors in a neurological center in Amsterdam that tested 20 MSers and found NO CCSVI: http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-11029.html.  Through the usual collaborative, multi-party internet sleuthing that is one of the great benefits of sites like TiMS, it became apparent that this article is really not a very good rebuttal of evidence for CCSVI at all, that the "researchers" did not use the Zamboni techniques and may not even be vascular specialists... perhaps they only produced what some neurologists wanted to hear?