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Using powerful MRI to track iron levels in brain could be new way to monitor progression of MS



Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way to track the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) in those living with the disease, by using a powerful, triple strength MRI to track increasing levels of iron found in brain tissue.

The researchers discovered that iron levels in MS patients are increasing in grey matter areas of the brain that are responsible for relaying messages. High iron levels in a specific "relay area" were noted in patients who had physical disabilities associated with MS.

Iron is very important for normal function of the brain and the amount of iron is a tightly controlled system by the brain tissue. The discovery suggests there is a problem with the control system. Too much iron can be toxic to brain cells and high levels of iron in the brain have been associated with various neurodegenerative diseases. But to date, no tests have been able to quantify or measure iron in living brain.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/3253

Why are they calling this new?
"No tests available to quantify or measure iron in living brain tissue" is not true.
Drs. Bakshi, Haacke, Zivadinov and Ge have been monitoring and quantifying iron in the brain for almost a decade.
SWI technology was the first to allow researchers to see iron in brain tissue, and to note that it was related to accruing disability
Dr. Ge has used magnetic field correlation (MFC) technology to image iron in gray matter in MS-
http://www.ajnr.org/content/28/9/1639.long
Here's a story from 2003 and Dr. Bakshi
http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis ... n-in-brain

Why does Alberta feel the need to have their neuroimmunology department come out with this study and specifically state "This has nothing to do with CCSVI?" They are protesting and affirming beyond normal research measures.
It is curious, and quite odd.
and revisionist history,
cheer

cheerleader wrote:Why are they calling this new?

Because the tests and works done by Haacke et al are currently not accepted by the majority of neurologists, so this title will always look more impressive when refered to. Its like five yearolds claiming who is the best or maybe trying to get published in medical journals is heading in the same directions as "News" stries (Headline, Headline, Headline!)

cheerleader wrote:Why does Alberta feel the need to have their neuroimmunology department come out with this study and specifically state "This has nothing to do with CCSVI?" They are protesting and affirming beyond normal research measures.
It is curious, and quite odd.

CCSVI should take it like a Hollywood Starlet, 'There's no such thing as bad publicity' Hopefully others will start to question how the iron got there if its not "in the blood". Seems obvious what brought it there, and then there is a need to explain why it stayed / got deposited... the world turns, but slowly.

Cure--I can understand the ignorance regarding Haacke's SWI work (well, not really...)
but they surely can't have missed Dr. Rohit Bakshi's decade long study of iron in gray matter?? He's a neuro, and has been published in their journals, and spoken at their conferences. Still don't get how they can say "New!" Do they really think we can't read?

http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis ... n-in-brain

Oct. 22, 2003 -- Iron deposits deep in the brain may cause multiple sclerosis, new imaging studies suggest.

The findings come from studies of computer-assisted brain scans using a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. University at Buffalo, N.Y., researchers Rohit Bakshi, MD, and colleagues are the first to use this technique to study multiple sclerosis. Bakshi reported the findings at this week's annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Francisco.

Multiple sclerosis has been considered a disease of the white matter in the brain and spinal cord -- the neural pathways that allow areas of gray matter to communicate with one another. But the new findings link iron deposits in the gray matter to movement and thinking impairments in multiple sclerosis.

"If we're going to treat this disease, we have to know where the damage is," Bakshi says in a news release. "Traditionally, we thought MS was strictly a white-matter disease. ... We were able to visualize gray matter structures deep in the brain of MS patients and found some to be atrophied."

sounds reasonable enough, doesn't it??

cheer

You are REALLY going to be upset if/when NEUROLOGIST start claiming they discovered a new cause of MS, that vascular deformities are causing MS.

CureOrBust wrote:You are REALLY going to be upset if/when NEUROLOGIST start claiming they discovered a new cause of MS, that vascular deformities are causing MS.

Ha! Good one, cure. Dr. Fox/Cleveland Clinic already did that with their autopsy presentation at ECTRIMS...Look! We found valvular malformations never seen before! (um...maybe read B.B. Lee's descriptions of truncular malformations and CCSVI...)
But whatever that emoticon is doing (having a grande mal seizure?) I won't go there. Promise.
cheer