If nothing else it is up to the autommne MS apologists to explain why MSers have reflux and how that develops....DOWNSTREAM from the brain. How can inflammation in the brain reach ahead of the brain through the circulation and cause a stenosis? It defies logic.
You could argue that the inflammed areas in the brain are so inflammed and the lesions so scarred that it stops circulation from getting through well and the blood backs up from there.....but that is BACKWARDS from what is happening. that would be blood backing up on the other side of the brain in relation to circulation, as in the blood can't get IN. It is friday. Dr Z talks Monday......
Thanks for thinking of us over here Ken.
The paper you linked is a detailed procedure for a lab test in which they took endothelium (blood vessel membrane) and grew it in very controlled conditions in the lab. They then subjected it to hypoxia, low oxygen, conditions for 48 hours. After that they tallied the upregulation and adhesion of some stuff noting that NFkB ( an immune factor that body uses in stress of any kind like germs or injury)was very much "grabbed up" (increased affinity) by the endothelial cells after this treatment.
I am far less versed in endothelium than Cheer as it is her focus, but it is worth noting that hypoxia of 48 hours is a problem you might see after a stroke or something like that because the artery has been blocked off in that situation and oxygen is not getting IN. In the CCSVI model the blood is not getting OUT on the venous side, which results in a backup.
It still seems plausible that there would be some impact on oxygenation because if it is true that the veins are backed up, then it stands to reason the arteries may have a hard time delivering the 02, and in fact the perfusion studies on MS brains, discussed on this thread about 10 pages ago, show that there is decreased perfusoin in MS brains and slower mean transit time. But I am not sure that frank hypoxia for 48 hours is at all similar to what would be happening in this model if it is correct.
Frankly if Dr Zamboni's material is proven, there will be vast amounts of study along these lines. It will open a whole new field of research because once you have had this event of plugged up veins and this backup, the area, including the endothelium and BBB, has been permanently changed. research such as this showing what happens after some traumatic event to the endothelium and the consequences of such a thing will be important.
It is not going to be 'get the vein fixed and go on your merry way never to think of it again.' There are going to be all kinds of things that need to be addressed. My personal interest is that germs like CPn that have been shown in so many studies to be in MS brains are probably there as an aftermath of this kind of change to the endothelium in the area of the MS lesions. Others will rightly point out that ebv is there often as well, and that the injured lesion are well known to be full of all kinds of immune factors.
assuming the Z model is proven, How will the endothelium be healed after the vein is repaired? Is it permanently damaged or not? CAN the brain lesion behind it be healed at all? Will such healing be complete or partial? Will the ebv and CPn, mycoplasma, or other things that may have gotten in while the endothelium (BBB) was damaged and open set up shop and simmer in the brain? How about the inflammatory cells that got in, will they be compartmentalized behind the BBB and simmer in there? Is there any autoimmunity after the fact caused by the aggressive effort of the body to deal with the junk that got into the brain and heal it? Every bit of this will need to be looked at.
(FOr the positive I will offer that polio usually healed quite well. Some were unfortunate, but most had a lot of healing. Many stroke survivors also heal a great deal of repair and healing even into old age.)
I think that some people find this theory naive because they have not considered the wider implications of what it would really mean if MS is caused by this venous problem. It is still going to be very complex, the MS lesions themselves are well studied and very full of junk that does not belong there. This is not going to change that completely simply by fixing the vein. I know for certain that Dr Zamboni's team sees it as complicated and that they are very aware of the fact that other things are likely involved.
But if this is right what it does mean is that a cure can never be had simply with pharmaceuticals and all of the research to date is missing the target. that is why it is s critically important that it be thoroughly invstigated immediately.
He is really gung ho; enough to do venograms on the first visit. Her report is going to be very important.
