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Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and multiple sclerosis (MS): a critical review.
Journal article

Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and multiple sclerosis (MS): a critical review.

  • Zecca C Servizio di Neurologia, Neurocentro della Svizzera Italiana, Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Switzerland. chiara.zecca@eoc.ch
  • Gobbi C
  • 2011-08-16
Published in:
  • CNS & neurological disorders drug targets. - 2011
Central Nervous System
Cerebral Veins
Chronic Disease
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Multiple Sclerosis
Venous Insufficiency
English Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the central nervous system with not yet completely understood pathogenesis. The so called "chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) theory" has recently emerged, supporting the concept of a cerebrospinal venous drainage impairment as the cause of MS. Since the first publication on this topic with a claimed 100% specificity and sensitivity of the condition for MS diagnosis, CCSVI theory has generated a scientific and mass media debate with a great hope for the miracle of a new possible endovascular treatment of MS ("liberation procedure"). We critically summarize the available evidence on CCSVI discussing inconsistent and incomplete replication of the original results by different groups, methodological limitations and potential therapeutic implications. We conclude that the available data are insufficient to establish conclusively a clear relationship between MS and CCSVI and do not support the role of CCSVI as the primary cause of MS. Until credible scientific evidence replicates the original results, any proposed invasive treatments of CCSVI should be discouraged.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/190026
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