Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients globally have been embracing the 2009 vein-blockage theory of Italian vascular surgeon Paolo Zamboni in the hope of unblocking veins and improving their MS condition through surgery. Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo have challenged that theory with their recently completed study.

     The 500 person Buffalo study included 289 MS patients--21 who had experienced only one MS attack, 26 with other neurological diseases, and more than 160 healthy "control" patients. The study discovered that 44 percent of the MS patients tested had no blocked veins, and slightly more than a quarter of the healthy subjects had blocked veins. Of the patients with other neurological conditions, 42.3 percent had blockages; and of the patients who had experienced one MS attack, 38.1 percent had blockages.

     The researchers noted that the blockages were more prevalent in longer-terms forms of MS; and Dr. Robert Zivadinov, the Buffalo neurologist who led the study, theorized that vein blockage might possibly result because people with relatively advanced MS are able to move less and have less blood flow to the brain. Therefore, while the new study found a relationship between MS and blocked veins, it concluded that the results suggest that the blockages--termed "chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency" by Dr. Zamboni--may be a consequence rather than a cause of MS.

     MS expert Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a neurologist at Stanford University, cautioned that "people running around the world to get this procedure done ought to look at the evidence and save themselves money."

--Source: Excerpted from "MS Study Questions Blocked-Vein Theory," Thomas M. Burton, The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2011