Mr. Speaker, last week, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health said:
We are currently awaiting the results of seven clinical diagnostic trials....
If the medical experts agree that there is sufficient evidence to warrant clinical trials, then our government will fund them.
I would like to address the seven correlational studies being undertaken, question the need to replicate these studies and argue that there is in fact sufficient evidence to warrant clinical trials in Canada now and that our government should fund them.
In countries around the world. evidence now exists that 80% to 97% of MS patients show one or more venous abnormalities. This is higher than ultrasound or MRI because angioplasty, the gold standard, was used. These studies were undertaken in separate centres in space and time by separate operators and yet show similar results. Why will the government wait another two years for repeat studies?
Time is brain in MS and patients cannot afford a two year delay. Thirty percent to 50% of MS patients who are untreated worsen by one EDSS score in one year. Fifty percent with relapsing remitting MS later develop a progressive form of the disease for which there are no drugs, and up to two-thirds of patients experience cognitive impairment, which can affect daily functioning, employment and social life.
There is a well-known rationale for supporting an association between MS and venous obstruction, namely, MS plaques are venocentric, as identified by Rindfleisch as early as the 1800s and Putnam in 1935 who said it was “...almost inevitable that venular obstruction is the essential immediate antecedent to the formation of typical sclerotic plaques”.
Increased iron content in plaques and vessel wall may be a biomarker of tissue damage and may be caused by changes in vascular flow and increases in intracranial pressure.
There may be as many as 48 categories describing the types of vascular abnormalities in the chest, neck and spine that have now been identified by Dr. Haacke, a world leader in diagnostic imaging. These abnormalities include: stenosis in one or more major veins draining the brain; truncular venous malformations; lack of flow in one or more of the major veins; malfunctioning or stuck valves; reflux in the deep cerebral veins or the jugular veins meaning that blood flood actually reverses and travels toward the brain instead of draining to the heart; and other abnormalities.
Astonishingly, one patient was actually born without jugulars, the deep cervical veins substituted. In other patients the deep cervical veins and vertebral vessels are almost non-existent.
Over 3,000 procedures have been undertaken worldwide in over 50 countries. More important, neurologists are seeing their patients get better, with reduced brain fog, fatigue and improved circulation and motor skills, as demonstrated through improved EDSS scores.
As Dr. Zamboni, the pioneer of the technique, told the neurological subcommittee last June, the diagnosis and treatment of CCSVI are safe, had resulted in significant improvements in the quality of life of many MS patients and that clinical trials were needed.
Why is the government refusing to undertake clinical studies? Why not follow Canadian patients who felt forced to seek treatment overseas? Why lose this important data? Why not lead instead of follow 50 other countries and yet refuse to ask for their data and expertise? Most important, why ensure that Canadians be subjected to devastating MS for at least another two years?