Husband's Studies Lead To Clinical Trial - Multiple Sclerosis Society

Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 25 Nov 2009 - 8:00 PST

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News reports this week have detailed the research of Canadian scientists and Dr Paolo Zamboni, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Ferrara in Italy and whose wife has multiple sclerosis (MS).

Dr Zamboni claims from his studies of MS literature to have discovered what he believes could be a revolution for the treatment and diagnosis of the life-long condition.

Now, researchers at Buffalo University in New York are recruiting 1,700 adults and children from the United States and Canada to test his hypothesis.

His theory centres around the repeated references in research text books to deposits of iron in the blood vessels and a link to MS.

Excess deposits of the heavy metal have been proven to lead to inflammation and cell death in the laboratory. These are both characteristics of MS.

Using ultrasound to examine the vessels leading in and out of the brain, Dr. Zamboni tested his theory in people and found that in a majority, including his spouse who he also experimented upon, the veins draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people without MS, they were not.

He further suggested that iron was damaging the blood vessels and allowing the heavy metal, along with other unwelcome cells, to cross the crucial brain-blood barrier, a process termed Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI).

Commenting on his theories, Dr Susan Kohlhaas, Research Communications Officer at the MS Society, said: "The MS Society supports evidence-based information concerning MS and welcomes new avenues of research into the causes and possible treatments.

"More research is needed to pin down any relationship between CCSVI and MS and in that respect we welcome the trial currently recruiting in New York."

Read our fact sheet on CCSVI for more information.

Source
Multiple Sclerosis Society