From the Hilarescere Foundation website:

The discovery of CCSVI

Origin of the research

The Vascular Centre of the University of Ferrara has always investigated vascular diseases and the tissue damages possibly arising from insufficient functioning and/or chronic malfunctioning of the venous system. This special interest has led Prof. Paolo Zamboni to investigate aspects which had never been explored in medicine before, such as the possible existence of a cerebral vein functional deficit. This research work had led to the discovery and definition of a new disease pattern called CCSVI (chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency).

The first investigations on the possibility that venous malfunctioning could cause damage to the central nervous system – which was an entirely new research topic worldwide – started in 2002. Until then, only acute damage to the cerebro-spinal veins had been studied but no reference had ever been made to the possibility of chronic venous insufficiency in the brain.

During the first phase of the research attempts were made at developing non-invasive techniques to functionally explore the cerebral veins.
In a subsequent phase, several diseases of the central nervous system (Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, etc…) were compared to the conditions of (healthy) control individuals.
It turned out immediately that venous functioning in all these diseases was absolutely comparable to that of healthy subjects, while in all MS patients there was marked chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI).

Teamwork: neurologists and vascular surgeons

The study of CCSVI (chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency) has right from the beginning posed a new challenge in the understanding of some neurologic diseases, above all multiple sclerosis, making the joint work of neurologists and vascular surgeons most important.
In 2007, cooperation started between the Vascular Disease Centre of the University of Ferrara and the Centre for Neuroimmune Diseases of the Bellaria Hospital in Bologna headed by Dr Fabrizio Salvi. It was thanks to this joint work that concrete results were obtained in the field of diagnosis and early therapeutic results were achieved in the treatment of CCSVI.

The finding of altered cerebro-spinal drainage in all patients suffering from multiple sclerosis followed by the Il Bene Centre from the Neuroscience Department of Bologna and studied by the Ferrara group opened up new working hypotheses and new perspectives on multiple sclerosis.

International relations:
Jacobs Institute in Buffalo, New York State University

One of the first questions that this group of researchers tried to answer was whether this phenomenon was exclusively found at our latitudes or among individuals with common genetic background or whether it could be detected also in other populations at different latitudes or with completely different genetic background.
For this reason, cooperation was started with one of the most important American institutes, which represents a reference point for MS research worldwide: the Jacobs Institute of Neurology based in Buffalo, New York State University.
(editor’s note: the Jacobs Institute is the institute where the most important drug for the treatment of MS was developed, i.e. interferon).

In the framework of this collaborative study, investigations were carried out on new Italian patients and American patients referring to the Jacobs Institute, i.e. patients with a completely different genetic make-up. This study once again unconfutably confirmed the inevitable association between CCSVI and MS.


Treatment

Being consistently associated with MS, CCSVI certainly has a negative impact on the course of MS, since it contributes to worsening the inflammatory conditions.
CCSVI treatment was experimented at the Vascular Disease Centre of the University of Ferrara, with the approval of the Ethics Committee in February 2007. The researchers hope that by improving cerebral venous drainage one also obtains an improvement in the condition of the MS patients.
Treatment consists of an minimally-invasive endovascular procedure performed in day hospital conditions.

In April 2009, the technique was described during a presentation held by Prof. Paolo Zamboni at the 31° Charing Cross International Symposium at the Imperial College in London - the annual world meeting of vascular and endovascular surgeons (this piece of research was also published in JNNP, the neurology journal of the British Medical Journal).

Following Prof. Zamboni’s presentation in London, many centres from all over the world contacted the Ferrara group to apply these new diagnostic and endovascular techniques. Among them was Dr. Michael Dake of Stanford University, California.