Promising results in the first study on the prevalence of venous blindness and a lack of multiple sclerosis

More than 55 percent of MS patients participating in the first phase of the first randomized clinical study to determine whether people with MS narrowed the gallery of extracranial veins, causing restrictions on the normal flow of blood from the brain, This anomaly.

The results were reported by researchers studying the nervous system at the University of Buffalo.

At 10.2 percent of the subjects whose border line results were excluded, the percentage of MS patients affected rose to 62.5 percent, showing preliminary results, compared to 25.9 percent of healthy people.

These preliminary results are based on the first 500 participants in the Combined Transcranial and Extracranial Reddy Doppler Assessment (CTEVD) study, which began at the UB in April 2009. Investigators 500 are planning to study other topics, which will be evaluated in the second phase of the study with more sophisticated diagnostic tools. Full data on the first 500 will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in April.

Robert Zivadinov, Doctor, Ph.D., UB Professor of Neurology and Principal Investigator in the study, says he is “cautiously optimistic and excited” about the initial data. Zivadinov directs Buffalo Diagnostic Imaging of Neurodegenerative Center Analysis (BNAC), located at Kaleida Public Health Hospital in Buffalo, where a study is being prepared.

The data encourage us to continue on the same path, “he says.” It has been shown that narrowing extracranial veins, at least, is an important association in multiple sclerosis. We will know more when MRI and other data collected in this CTEVD study are available. “The analysis is conducted by an independent statistical body.

The investigation is the first step in determining whether a condition called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is one of the major causative factors for MS. CCSVI is a complex condition discovered and described by blood vessels Paolo Zamboni, MD, of Italy at the University of Ferrara. Zamboni’s original investigation in a group of 65 patients and 235 CCSVI controls showed that it was strongly associated with MS, which increased the risk of having MS by 43 fold.

Zamboni and Zivadinov hypothesized that this reduction limits normal blood flow from the brain, resulting in changes in blood flow patterns in the brain that eventually cause damage to brain tissue and neuronal degeneration.

The first 500 patients, both adults and children, have been collected based on the diagnosis: MS, clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and other “neurological diseases” (ANDO), in addition to health controls.

All participants in the first stage underwent an ultrasound (Doppler) scan from the head and neck in different body positions to display the direction of venous blood flow. MS subjects also underwent brain magnetic resonance assays to measure iron deposits in lesions and surrounding areas of the brain, using a method called weighted imaging susceptibility. Iron results will be related to these subjects’ deficits, neurological symptoms.

Of the total participants, 97.2 percent of adults, with 280 patients including the largest disease complication studied in the study so far. The majority of subjects, MS was diagnosed with relapsing form of MS. There were 161 healthy people. Doppler survey results Five specific criteria have been reported that affect venous blood flow. Patients who met at least two of the criteria were considered to be CCSVI. A more detailed analysis of Doppler’s specific criteria and their association to disease status is ongoing.

10.2 percent at the borderline subjects that were included in the “normal” category (ie venous insufficiency), the prevalence of CCSVI was 56.4 percent in MS subjects and 22.4 percent in healthy individuals.

In this extensive regimen MS, the presence of CCSVI did not indicate a correlation with the progression of the disease, a finding that was not shown in Zamboni ‘s younger, strangest, Zivadinov observations.

Found that 22.4 percent of healthy people also met two CCSVI standards requiring investigation still going on, he says.

Bianca Weinstock-Gutman, MD, UB professor of neuroscience at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and one of the participants in the principal investigator of the study, notes that CTEVD research results will ask new and provocative questions about the CCSVI theory.

Morali Ramanathan, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UB College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ralph Benedict XVI, PhD, UB Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, are also major contributors to this study.

Source: Louis Baker University in Buffalo