"They are not convinced by the evidence that blockages to draining veins from the brain are specific to people with MS, or that this explains the cause of MS at any stage of the condition."
Dr Zamboni's most recently published work examined CCSVI in 65 people and suggested that 50 per cent of people with relapsing remitting MS were relapse-free for 18 months.
Among the control group of MS patients who did not undergo the procedure, Zamboni found that only 27 per cent went 18 months without a relapse. There was no published benefit for people with progressive forms of the condition.
Participants with relapsing remitting MS, however, were allowed to continue receiving their usual form of treatment, so it is inconclusive whether any reduction in relapse rate was due to the CCSVI procedure.
Importantly, the result of the procedure was measured using different MRI scanning machines and at different times, meaning the data is inconsistent and not a useful measure.
Professor Alastair Compston, Head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, is one of the six medical advisors of the MS Society, UK.
He said: "The treatment for CCSVI is not available for patients with multiple sclerosis in the United Kingdom because there is no convincing evidence to suggest that it is safe or beneficial to people with MS.
"People with MS are unlikely to benefit from treatments that dilate blood vessels."
Dr Susan Kohlhaas stressed, “The MS Society supports evidence-based information concerning MS and welcomes new avenues of research into the causes and possible treatments.
“More research is needed to pin down any relationship between CCSVI and MS and in that respect we welcome the trial currently recruiting in New York.”
Source-Medindia
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