A new study sets out to determine whether multiple sclerosis is actually the result of a narrowing of veins outside the skull

Brain with lesions, Courtesy of Wikimedia

Common knowledge holds that multiple sclerosis (MS) is the result of an abnormal immune response against the patient’s nervous system. However, common knowledge might go awry. As it turns out, MS is also strongly associated with a narrowing of the primary veins outside the skull, a condition called “chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency”. The narrowing of the blood vessels restricts the normal outflow of blood from the brain, causing alterations in the blood flow patterns within the brain and eventually leading to injury to brain tissue and degeneration of neurons. Preliminary findings from a pilot study show that all of the 16 relapsing-remitting MS patients, but none of the controls, had chronic insufficient blood flow out of the brain.

Neurologists at the University at Buffalo are beginning a new study to see if the preliminary results can be repeated, which will involve 1,600 adults and 100 children. Enrollment in the study has begun and will continue for two years.

“If we can prove our hypothesis, that cerebrospinal venous insufficiency is the underlying cause of MS,” said Robert Zivadinov, M.D., Ph.D., UB associate professor of neurology, director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) and principal investigator on the study, “it is going to change the face of how we understand MS.”

Link: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/10562