A Cause? Blood Flow From the Brain

Sometimes there just isn't enough time. I think it everyday, but especially this time of year.

I love to make 'stuff', though with three children (4, 2 1/2 and 9 months) there isn't a whole lot of extra time these days. Every year around this time I get the itch, pull out my sketch book, day dream in the shower ... about making Christmas presents. Yes, making them. Crazy isn't it.

Without getting too side-tracked, I need to either make the time or get over it. This MS thing that afflicts my sister, it's on my list of things I want to spend more time on.

Just this morning, I received my monthly newsletter from the MS Society. (Go to Subscribe to the monthly MS Newsletter to sign up.) The lead article caught my attention. Instead of making time later, I thought I'd jump right in.

A small study in Italy hints at a possible cause for MS. The study hints that poor blood flow from brain back to the heart may play a role in nervous system damage. We all know finding a cause leads to prevention and cure. Will it happen? - absolutely. Will it happen in time for our loved ones now afflicted ... I don't know.

Sometimes we just don't have time. We don't have time to ride a bike on a Saturday for the cause or we can't make the time to get away from work and swing a club or two. But to all of our credit, we do take the time sometimes and we give a little and a guy with a white coat in Italy ends up with a little extra cash to run a small study that just may spark something big.

Hey, maybe you shot a 102 like me, but you took the time and maybe, just maybe, you made a little bit of a difference.

Next is an excerpt from the newsletter.

"Results of a study into MS and poor blood circulation in the brain, or chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CSSVI), revisited a decades-old theory that abnormal blood flow in the brain might play a key role in nervous system damage. Paolo Zamboni, MD, and his team at the University of Ferrara in Italy, used sonography to detect abnormalities in vein drainage from the brain to the heart in 65 people with MS. They compared the results with those of 235 people who were either healthy or who had other neurological disorders.

Dr. Zamboni and team found that many of the people with MS showed evidence of slowed or obstructed drainage in veins running from the brain to the heart. They also found blood flow being rerouted to smaller vessels, some of which actually reversed flow back into the brain. In the report, which was published in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, the authors suggest that it may be this reverse flow that sets off the inflammation and immune-system response in MS.

In a collaborative study now getting under way among researchers in Italy and the United States, 16 people with CSSVI are being experimentally treated with balloon dilation, which has been used to treat blocked arteries.

If confirmed, the results of the Italian study may lead to new research into the underlying causes of MS. But many questions still remain. There is not yet enough evidence to say that CSSVI causes MS, at what stage in the disease it happens, or whether therapies aimed at improving blood drainage would be safe or beneficial."

Full story: Research into Blood Flow in the Brain and Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI, in MS