Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Venoplasty has been used in our hospitals in Canada as a treatment modality probably for the last 25 years. As was suggested, no treatment is 100% safe, but it's a minimalistic type of procedure that we use routinely, both in the arteries and in the veins. I think if the issue

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Yes. We have been very interested in putting forth a proposal. It would require gathering a team, which obviously involves neurologists or MSologists. The barrier we've had to date is getting that team to collaborate to put forth a proposal. Perhaps after today, and if I go back

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I don't disagree with the proposal for randomized studies. I have an issue with what's currently being funded. It's lacking the treatment arm necessary to answer the question that you just said needs to be answered. So of course it's important to know how to evaluate it and of c

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  We have not done any angioplasties at our institution because we refuse to do them outside of a proper protocol. But Dr. Sandy McDonald, as I'm sure you're aware, has done seven cases, all of whom have shown improvement. I'm cautious here, in that the improvement was not identifi

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I think I can answer the question, because in most of the university centres across Canada, we have been evaluating disease processes for the last 20 years. We did this with coronary artery angioplasty and with peripheral arterial angioplasty. We've done it with carotid disease.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Madam Chair, I think I was asked to reply to the comment.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  May I?

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  May I have one minute?

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I'm sorry?

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  All right. Thank you very much to Dr. Beaudet for his input. I think we all know that what is lacking, at least in Canada, through all the research and all the commentary that has been made, is that we need a treatment arm to test the hypothesis. Unfortunately, the $2.4 millio

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  No. I'm finished.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I won't reiterate what has been so well elaborated by Dr. Simka and Dr. Zamboni, but I'll try to bring you a perspective on where we are in Canada. The essence of the problem is an assumption that venous abnormalities to drainage from the brain circulation cause venous hypertens