Study into 'liberation treatment' for MS wins approval

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Friday, Sep. 28, 2012 10:51AM EDT Last Updated Saturday, Sep. 29, 2012 10:14AM EDT

A Canadian study that will test the so-called liberation treatment on people with multiple sclerosis has received the necessary medical and ethical approvals to go ahead.

Dr. Anthony Traboulsee, medical director of the UBC Hospital MS Clinic, and his team received ethics approvals from institutions in British Columbia and Qubec and will now begin the process to begin a clinical trial into the procedure.

The main objective of the study will be to determine the safety of conducting angioplasty to open neck and chest veins, and to monitor how the procedure affects MS patients.

This pan Canadian controlled study will allow us to monitor MS patients over a two-year period and obtain scientific evidence on the safety and efficacy of the CCSVI procedure in the long term, Dr. Traboulsee said in a statement Friday.

Patient recruitment for the study will begin on Nov. 1, 2012.

Approximately 100 patients are expected to participate in the trial, to be conducted in British Columbia and Qubec.

The study is a collaborative effort of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the MS Society of Canada and the provinces where the trial will take place. The study is expected to cost $6 million.

The liberation treatment is a procedure developed by Italian physician Dr. Paolo Zamboni. Its based on his theory that narrowed neck veins are behind MS symptoms.

The narrowed neck veins, a condition he calls Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI, reduces blood flow. That then allows iron deposits to build up in the brain, Zamboni believes.

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Study into 'liberation treatment' for MS wins approval