Using angioplasty to widen the jugular and azygos veins to improve blood flow to the brain could help prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) in patients with chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, according to the Society for Interventional Radiology (SIR). However, a multicenter trial is critical to understanding the condition and its possible treatment, the society noted. "Much work needs to be done to better define, explore and prove the concept of vein obstruction playing a role in causing multiple sclerosis,"
said Gary P. Siskin, MD, a SIR research consensus panel member.

Blockage in veins that drain blood from the brain and spinal cord and return it to the heart might contribute to MS and its symptoms, according to Siskin, an interventional radiologist and chair of the radiology department at Albany Medical Center in Albany. The impact of widening those veins with angioplasty to reduce the severity of MS needs to be studied, he noted.