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CCSVI - The Liberation Treatment

CCSVI is a condition called "Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency" and was discovered by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a vascular surgeon at the University of Ferrara in Italy. It refers to a narrowing or blockage of the primary veins draining blood from the brain to the heart. These include the jugular veins, veins along the spinal column and the azygos vein in the upper chest.
This narrowing restricts the normal outflow of blood from the brain. As a result, the blood often "refluxes" that is: it flows backwards into the brain. Some think the resulting flow and building pressure pushes blood into the tissue around vessels in the brain, resulting in toxic iron deposits that some believe may trigger inflammation, injury to brain tissue and cell death.

Dr. Zamboni has used Doppler ultrasound to scan the heads and necks of over 500 MS patients and found the blocked, narrowed and sometimes missing veins of CCSVI in almost 100 per cent of them. These problems were found only in MS patients, not in healthy people nor in those with other neurological conditions.
 
Dr. Zamboni's first study involving Doppler ultrasound was published in 2007 in the journal Current Neurovascular Research. Most of the MS patients have CCSVI either in the jugular veins or in the main vein in the central chest called the azygos. The more vein malformations that impede flow, the greater the severity of symptoms, the researchers contend. Dr. Zamboni says his findings are considered 'proof of concept" that CCSVI is strongly associated with MS. In December, 2008, Dr. Zamboni and his team published theri findings in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Doctors in the United States and Poland have also scanned a small number of MS patients and found they too have CCSVI. Dr. Michael Dake at Stanford University in California has also been scanning patients and finding a striking similarity to Zamboni's findings.


What role does iron play in MS?

Scientists have long recognized MS patients have increased amounts of iron in the brain compared to healthy people. Iron is dangerous to the brain because it produces free radicals which kill brain cells. Zamboni noticed iron deposits occurred around veins and he surmised the iron accumulation was caused by a problem with drainage in the veins that flow from the brain.
He believes the narrowing or blockages in the veins of MS patients cause blood to flow backward into the vein and deposit the toxic iron. According to Zamboni's theory, this causes inflammation, and triggers an immune response - the picture of MS. New MRI technology is allowing scientists to more clearly see iron in the brain, speeding study.

What causes CCSVI?

Doctors are not sure but they believe that veins that are susceptible to blocking and twisting develop in the womb as a congenital birth defect or early in childhood. There could be environmental factors as well.
There is also a theory that low levels of vitamin D might play a role. It's been well-documented that higher rates of MS are seen in countries with lower exposure to vitamin D through sunlight and diet. Since vitamin D is critical to the normal development of the immune system and also in the development of blood vessels and endothelial tissue -- the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels. The theory is that low levels of vitamin D in utero or early in childhood may impair the body's ability to form healthy vessels and lead to the narrowing and blockages seen in CCSVI. But this is not yet proven; more research is needed.