The Scottish Intracranial Vascular Malformation Study (SIVMS)

A prospective, population-based study that was set-up in 1998 by Dr. Rustam Al-Shahi. With funding from the Chief Scientist’s Office of the Scottish Executive and the Stroke Association, SIVMS collects all incident, adult cases of arteriovenous malformation (AVM), cavernous malformation (CM), venous malformation (VM) and dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) diagnosed in Scotland on or after January 1999. It remains the largest population-based study of brain intracranial vascular malformations.  

SIVMS full details

A Randomised Trial of Unruptured Brain Arteriovenous Malformations (ARUBA)

The first WORLDWIDE RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL for adults with brain AVMs is underway. So far, no-one has ever done a randomised controlled trial (which is the ‘acid test’ for any treatment) to demonstrate that it is beneficial to treat brain AVMs that have never bled (known as ‘unruptured brain AVMs’). Whilst some doctors believe that unruptured brain AVMs should be treated if possible, others do not.

ARUBA will study adults with an unruptured brain AVM. If specialists decide that it is technically possible to treat the brain AVM, anyone who agrees to participate in ARUBA would be randomly allocated to one of two groups: (1) a policy of interventional treatment of the brain AVM, or (2) no immediate interventional treatment of the brain AVM. By interventional treatment, ARUBA is referring to neurosurgery, endovascular embolisation, stereotactic radiotherapy. The intention is to compare the long-term outcome for these 2 groups of people, over at least 5 years.

ARUBA further details