if you haven't looked at the Zamboni website thread, there is good info and hope for quick world wide web access to his results.
for those of us who are searching for local practitioners and quick is not quick enough I created the reader's digest version of the sticky CCSVI that might help you get in the door. It is short and sweet but full of convincing info for that busy person you want to reach.
New Model Breaks the MS Paradigm
Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in patients with multiple sclerosis
P Zamboni1, R Galeotti1, E Menegatti1, A M Malagoni1, G Tacconi1, S Dall’Ara1, I Bartolomei2, F Salvi2
1 Vascular Diseases Center, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
2 Department of Neurology, Bellaria Hospital, Bologna, Italy
Correspondence to:
Professor P Zamboni, Vascular Diseases Center, University of Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy;
zmp@unife.it
Background: The extracranial venous outflow routes in clinically defined multiple sclerosis (CDMS) have not previously been investigated.
Methods: Sixty-five patients affected by CDMS, and 235 controls composed, respectively, of healthy subjects, healthy subjects older than CDMS patients, patients affected by other neurological diseases and older controls not affected by neurological diseases but scheduled for venography (HAV-C) blindly underwent a combined transcranial and extracranial colour-Doppler high-resolution examination (TCCS-ECD) aimed at detecting at least two of five parameters of anomalous venous outflow. According to the TCCS-ECD screening, patients and HAV-C further underwent selective venography of the azygous and jugular venous system with venous pressure measurement.
Results: CDMS and TCCS-ECD venous outflow anomalies were dramatically associated (OR 43, 95% CI 29 to 65, p<0.0001). Subsequently, venography demonstrated in CDMS, and not in controls, the presence of multiple severe extracranial stenosis, affecting the principal cerebrospinal venous segments; this provides a picture of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) with four different patterns of distribution of stenosis and substitute circle. Moreover, relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive courses were associated with CCSVI patterns significantly different from those of primary progressive (p<0.0001). Finally, the pressure gradient measured across the venous stenosies was slightly but significantly higher.
Conclusion: CDMS is strongly associated with CCSVI, a scenario that has not previously been described, characterised by abnormal venous haemodynamics determined by extracranial multiple venous strictures of unknown origin. The location of venous obstructions plays a key role in determining the clinical course of the disease.
http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/jnnp.2008.157164v1
History:
• 1973 Dr F. Alfons Schelling, University of Innsbruck, Austria studied the venous width in the skull. 1978, he published his results.
• 1981 Schelling suspected the widening of venous passageways through the brain was connected to Multiple Sclerosis.
• 2002 Chi-Hsiang et al, published Ultrasonographic
(real time doppler) Evaluation of Vertebral Venous Valves
• 2006 Zamboni et al paper published The Big Idea: Iron-dependent inflammation in venous disease and proposed parallels in multiple sclerosis
• 2007 Zamboni makes presentation at CX Symposium
• 2008 Zamboni et al paper published Intracranial Venous Haemodynamics in Multiple Sclerosis
• 2008 Simka, Rybak paper published Hypothetical molecular mechanisms by which local iron overload facilitates the development of venous leg ulcers and multiple sclerosis lesions (supporting Zamboni’s earlier work)
• 2008 Zamboni et al paper published Doppler Haemodynamics of Cerebral Venous Return
• 2008 Yulin Ge et al 7T MRI: New Vision of Microvascular Abnormalities in Multiple Sclerosis
• 2008 Chi-Hsiang Chou et al published Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Vertebral Venous Valves
• 2008 J. Kostecki et al paper published Flow disturbances in internal jugular and vertebral veins in patients with multiple sclerosis.
• 2008 Zamboni et al paper published Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency in patients with Multiple Sclerosis
• 2008 Franceschi paper published The unsolved puzzle of multiple sclerosis and venous function
• 2008 Interview with Zamboni for 09 CX Symposium
• 2008 Zamboni et al starts The Liberation Procedure: the trial that works.
• 2009 Zamboni et al published paper The value of cerebral Doppler venous haemodynamics in the assessment of multiple sclerosis
• 2009 Simka paper published Blood Brain Barrier Compromise with Endothelial Inflammation may Lead to Autoimmune Loss of Myelin during Multiple Sclerosis