New Theory Brings Hope of Cure for Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis may be the result of structural problem in the veins that causes the body to poison the brain through blood that can not drain.

From CTV.com in Toronto.

"An investigation by CTV's W5 reveals that this treatment appears to stop the disease from progressing. Patients seen in the documentary relate how, after the simple procedure, their MS symptoms suddenly stopped and, in some cases, they were able to resume normal lives.

The Italian research is asking fundamental questions about the origins of the debilitating condition, whose causes have long remained a mystery.

It's generally assumed that MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the central nervous system, leading to weakness, extreme fatigue, chronic pain and visual problems.

But what if MS were really a vascular problem? What if it were caused by a structural defect in the veins, one that could be diagnosed and treated before patients become disabled?

That is the radical theory being presented by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara. Zamboni has been conducting research on MS patients and has noticed that almost all of them have malformed or blocked veins in their neck and chest that take blood away from their brains.

He believes that may be contributing to, or even causing, their Multiple Sclerosis.

"This is a breakthrough because it opens a new opportunity for research," Zamboni told CTV's W5 from his research lab in Ferrara, Italy.

Using ultrasound, Zamboni discovered that almost all MS patients have blocked or twisted veins in their necks and upper chest, while healthy people do not.

Zamboni has dubbed the vein condition CCSVI, or Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency and believes that in those with the condition, blood fails to properly drain from the brain and can even flow back upwards into the brain.

There, the blood could be depositing iron, a substance that is toxic to the brain's grey matter. This excess iron could be what sets off a host of immune reactions -- and possibly, the symptoms of MS.

"The first step is to prove that this is true and is more prevalent in MS patients, which I believe, medically speaking, it is true," he told CTV News. "Then, is it the cause or the consequence of MS? We don't know."

Even more exciting than a new theory on the cause of MS is new hope for a treatment.

Dr. Zamboni has tested a procedure he calls the "Liberation Treatment" that he says can open those blocked veins using a balloon inserted in the vein, in much the way surgeons repair coronary arteries in angioplasty.

The hope is that the treatment allows blood to drain properly and arrests the progression of MS.

Buffalo resident Kevin Lipp, 49, has already undergone the treatment as part of Zamboni and Zivadinov's research. He was diagnosed with MS a decade ago and suffered increasingly severe attacks that left him unable to work.

Lipp says his whole life changed after the procedure. He felt better almost immediately and hasn't had an MS attack in the 10 months since the procedure.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, an associate professor of neurology at Buffalo University in Buffalo, finds the new theory - and the Liberation Treatment - very exciting.

"If this is proven correct, it will be a very, very big discovery because we'll completely change the way we think about MS, and how we'll treat it," she says."