CCSVI coverage in the Wall Street Journal and AP/New York Times

So far, the mainstream US media has not given much attention to CCSVI research in MS, which is kind of amazing considering how heavily some other MS findings have been hyped. However, that may be changing. Two major US media outlets both released articles this week about CCSVI (chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency). Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported on the halting of the experimental vein stenting procedure being performed by Dr. Michael Dake at Stanford University. Dr. Dake had planned to try the procedure on 40 people with MS, but the death of one patient and the need for emergency surgery in another led hospital officials to close down the program. Dr. Dake's stance was that he was performing the type of preliminary work required to justify formalized research. The dean of the medical school said that the topic should be pursued further, and asked Stanford doctors to collaborate on studying the prevalence of vascular blockages in MS.

And earlier this week, the Associated Press released an article which can be found on the New York Times' web site. This article reviews the current set of research activities into CCSVI and discusses how these activities have come about through the enormous level of demand from people with MS. For example, the article states that over 13,000 people applied for the University of Buffalo's imaging study -- and 1,000 applied for a 30-person angioplasty trial. Also described is a small angioplasty trial taking place at Georgetown University Hospital.

New data from CCSVI studies will be presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology meeting in April. Perhaps the media coverage will pick up even more steam following those results.

[Thanks to MSNews reader Seth Matheson for the pointer!]