The perfect crime? : CCSVI not leaving a trace in MS

  • Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, believed to be triggered by an autoimmune reaction to myelin. Recently, a fundamentally different pathomechanism termed ‘chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency’ (CCSVI) was proposed, provoking significant attention in the media and scientific community. Methods: Twenty MS patients (mean age 42.2±13.3 years; median Extended Disability Status Scale 3.0, range 0–6.5) were compared with 20 healthy controls. Extra- and intracranial venous flow direction was assessed by colour-coded duplex sonography, and extracranial venous cross-sectional area (VCSA) of the internal jugular and vertebral veins (IJV/VV) was measured in B-mode to assess the five previously proposed CCSVI criteria. IJV-VCSA≤0.3 cm2 indicated ‘stenosis,’ and IJV-VCSA decrease from supine to upright position ‘reverted postural control.’ The sonographer, data analyser and statistician were blinded to the patient/control status of the participants. Results: No participant showed retrograde flow of cervical or intracranial veins. IJV-VCSA≤0.3 cm2 was found in 13 MS patients versus 16 controls (p=0.48). A decrease in IJV-VCSA from supine to upright position was observed in all participants, but this denotes a physiological finding. No MS patient and one control had undetectable IJV flow despite deep inspiration (p=0.49). Only one healthy control and no MS patients fulfilled at least two criteria for CCSVI. Conclusions: This triple-blinded extra- and transcranial duplex sonographic assessment of cervical and cerebral veins does not provide supportive evidence for the presence of CCSVI in MS patients. The findings cast serious doubt on the concept of CCSVI in MS.

Download full text files

Export metadata

Metadaten
Author:Christoph Mayer, Waltraud PfeilschifterORCiDGND, Matthias Lorenz, Max Nedelmann, Ingo Jürgen Bechmann, Helmuth SteinmetzORCiDGND, Ulf ZiemannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-100441
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2010.231613
ISSN:1468-330X
ISSN:0022-3050
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21296899
Parent Title (English):Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
Publisher:BMJ Publishing Group
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2011/08/13
Date of first Publication:2011/02/04
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2011/08/13
Volume:82
Issue:4
Page Number:6
First Page:436
Last Page:440
Note:
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.
Source:Journal of neurology, neurosurgery & psychiatry, 82, S. 436-440 ; doi:10.1136/jnnp.2010.231613
HeBIS-PPN:272942197
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 2.0