I'll have to watch this later. Currently stuck without and meds due to them all causing kidney stones, and I lost 18% body weight in 1 year but no difference at all, so I gained it back due to depression and symptoms of IIH being a struggle, now I'm back on the grind and losing weight, 8.5 kilos 2 months but it feels so hopeless, it may never improve...
I would love answers to the questions: 1. Do you need to have severe or bilateral transverse sinus stenosis to be a candidate for the study? 2. Has it been shown if lowering of intercranial preasure (by other means then stents) makes transverse sinus stenosis improve? Will this be studied in the patients who receive a shunt?
Very good questions! 1. The stenosis does not need to be bilateral, in fact most people have it on one side. However, it has to be of certain degree so the stenosis can cause blockage of the normal outflow of blood from the brain, which then causes raised pressure in the brain. In our trial the specialists at each hospital will decide whether the person is a candidate for the trial or not, based on the criteria they use in their normal practice to decide if the stenosis is significant or not. 2. Yes, the stenosis improves after lowering the intracranial pressure with other means (like for example spinal drains) and this has been shown in previous studies. Our trial will not examine this in people who receive a shunt, because people who enter the trial will not have more radiological examinations (scans) for the purposes of the trial only and will only have the CT and/or MRI scans they would normally have as part of their standard care.
Don't forget to add any questions that you have for George in the comments here. Only questions related to the talk can be answered. Questions relating to individuals personal medical queries can not be answered. The comments will be monitored by Dr Tsermoulas and IIH UK for the rest of this week.
