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has been looking for. It's rapid, and it's reliable. It follows disease progression via T-cells. It doesn't replace normal differential diagnoses, it augments and supports them by measuring the levels of immune response, imagine if CCSVI candidates had this test both pre and post op and into the future.

If indeed, negating the effects of reflux and damage via the venous system could be objectively shown to have slowed down or stopped the autoimmune response, well then we have the objective, scientific PROOF of the benefits of CCSVI treatment we've been waiting for.

http://www.selectscience.net/product-ne ... rtID=29310


Lophius Biosciences Collaboration Develops Test for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Multiple Sclerosis 21 Jun 2013

Bionamics GmbH, the coordinator of the NEU² consortium, and Lophius Biosciences GmbH have announced that Lophius Biosciences has joined the NEU² program with a project addressing the development of T-Track® MS as a novel blood-based diagnostic test supporting the initial diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and enabling the monitoring of MS disease progression. This new project is to last for about two years with a funding of > 350.000 EUR proportionally supplied by The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the BioPharma initiative.

Lophius Biosciences is a leading developer of innovative T cell based diagnostic test systems. One of the company’s platform technologies, the “Reverse T Cell Technology (RTT)”, represents a novel strategy for the diagnosis of T cell-mediated diseases. In contrast to available methods, RTT exploits the maturation processes induced in antigen presenting cells (APC) via a specific interaction with activated T helper (Th) cells thus representing an indirect measure for activated Th cells. Due to the high specificity of RTT for activated Th cells, the intended use of the RTT assay is the reliable detection of disease-specific activated Th cells as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of ongoing autoimmune diseases such as MS. The T-Track® MS test is aimed to fulfill unmet clinical needs offering a blood-based rapid and reliable differential diagnosis of MS complementary to the today’s state of the art clinical and MRT based diagnosis. Initial data from a collaboration between Lophius Biosciences and the Clinic and Policlinic for Neurology, University of Regensburg, and the Institute for Neuroimmunology and Clinical MS Research, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg, demonstrated preliminary clinical proof of principle for this MS test.

Dr. Michael Lutz and Prof. Dr. Ralf Wagner, Managing Directors of Lophius Biosciences commented: “We are very pleased to join the NEU² consortium. Both the opportunity to interact with leading experts in the MS field as well as the substantial funding will accelerate the development of our highly innovative T cell based diagnostic T-Track® MS test kit and help Lophius to initiate a broader clinical discovery and development program.”

Dr. Timm Jessen, CEO of Bionamics GmbH and founder of NEU², about the further expansion of the NEU² consortium: “With Lophius Biosciences we could attract an attractive new partner for the consortium. Its expertise in the diagnostic area will complement our expertises within NEU², also to the benefit of our current consortium members.”

other biomarkers we currently have available to those treated for CCSVI--pre and post treatment-- are gray matter atrophy reversal on MRI, white matter lesion cessation on MRI, cerebral perfusion on fMRI, and d dimer as a marker of endothelial dysfunction.
Venous gradiant pressure measures before and after are needed, as well.
http://www.ajnr.org/content/34/6/E70.extract

The clinical trials being designed now will most likely include these markers along with EDSS and QOL scales.
we're getting there--
cheer

I would think it might profit someone to validate Dr. Beggs' test which showed 100% specificity for "MS" and apply it pre- and post-angioplasty. The more of this kind of thing that gets done, the more useful evidence there will be. Are there age effects which can still be treated by angioplasty, will a delayed healing take place, what is the relationship between invisible vasculature, CSF and stenosis of the veins, etc.. There are many questions, and more and more we are finding out how to get the answers.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/m ... 8/art00008
As far as invisible vasculature goes, I think I read a long time ago that expanding the jugulars makes corollary veins disappear. I surmised that this is just because of the new very low flow resistance in parallel, which will steal most of the formerly visible flow. Maybe invisible capillaries are due to new, larger veins in parallel, or because of a new, low-resistance bleed directly parallel to the capillaries. I would look to lesions, and breaches in the blood-brain-barrier.

Or are they dying of hypoxia/hypgloxemia, etc.?

This needs to be investigated further in light of blood tests. Back in my Internet days, the practice was to have a "bake-off" and compare implementations of a protocol, in an attempt to find potential problems, make improvements, and prevent failures. It was done in an open, non-proprietary way, as a group, in a large "lab" with the participants being sponsored to go, on behalf of their companies, with the aim of improving an existing or candidate standard. I would suggest patients would benefit more from this type of activity than from the angels-on-pinheads work done in expensive "trials".

If you have a reliable test for "MS" come to the bake-off and test it against random known and unknown subjects, ages, DMD histories, etc....

cheerleader wrote:The clinical trials being designed now will most likely include these markers along with EDSS and QOL scales.

Any word on if Dr. Dake is still planning a CCSVI trial, or has he lost interest?
I think he knows how to do a trial right and it would be a much needed step in the right direction.

are 'markers' the same as tests? A simple test to properly verify MS ,would be welcome.

I haven't seen any so far.

This is the reason why MS is so puzzling. The Neurological World has merrily administered disease modifying drugs [ DMD's] in all shapes and sizes , based on 'time and space ' SYMPTOMS ...... with never any concrete-without-a -doubt ....SCIENTIFIC PROOF.

Along came Dr. Zamboni with a new idea. CCSVI . The scientific PROOF that pwMS can see is logical in explaning their symptoms.


MrSuccess

In medicine, a biomarker is a measurable characteristic that reflects the severity or presence of some disease state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomarker_(medicine)

Since it's measurable, resarchers can see if it improves or worsens after a treatment.

according to that wikipedia link ...... a bio marker .... can be as simple as a having a fever.

An actual test ... as in blood test .... can certainly be more focused than a simple high elevation of the body's temperature. I'm not targeting the 'high temp' bio marker in any effort to make Ringleaders informative post look bad. Not at all.

I , like the vast majority of people , look to blood testing to give answers to medical problems. Sometimes it seems to be the sole focus of medical research. I accept that.

As of today , and to the best of my knowledge , pwMS have blood no better nor worse than people than are deemed healthy. I'm fairly positive that blood service organizations accept blood donations from pwMS. Please correct me if I am wrong.

These organizations test and screen all donations .

All that said , today is a new day and someone , somewhere may indeed be having a Eureka! I found it moment. I could not be happier than to see a new test that confirms MS.

This could/should lead to a corrective MS remedy.


MrSuccess

CureIous wrote: Due to the high specificity of RTT for activated Th cells, the intended use of the RTT assay is the reliable detection of disease-specific activated Th cells as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of ongoing autoimmune diseases such as MS. The T-Track® MS test is aimed to fulfill unmet clinical needs offering a blood-based rapid and reliable differential diagnosis of MS complementary to the today’s state of the art clinical and MRT based diagnosis.

Forget it. They will find nothing. This path has been tried several times before and only failures were found. Of course this is great news for medicine and autoimmune disorders, but not for MS.

I figure this limits the scope of "MS" to what can be detected in a test of the immune system only. This will miss a lot of cases.