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Zamboni's "disciple and ally, Buffalo-based neurologist Robert Zivadinov" no longer believes in this, and at least 6 research studies have found no validity to Zamboni's assertion that CCSVI causes or contributes to MS
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Dr. Zivadinov’s findings are part of a growing body of evidence that suggests that they are wasting their time and their money – and perhaps putting their lives in danger.
But researchers trying to duplicate Dr. Zamboni’s findings could not do so, and began to poke holes in them. At least six studies published in the past year have raised serious questions.
Last August, two reports in the same issue of the Annals of Neurology found scant evidence of the condition Dr. Zamboni had dubbed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI). In fact, none of the MS patients studied met more than one of the five criteria Dr. Zamboni said are needed to diagnose CCSVI.
A paper in February’s issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry again found no vein problems, prompting its authors to “cast serious doubt” on the concept.
Finally, Dr. Zivadinov, a specialist in MS who teaches neurology at the University of Buffalo, fanned the flames even further.
After defending the procedure to his colleagues at the Toronto conference, he went home, looked at it more closely and found blocked veins, but in just 56 per cent of patients with MS. What’s more, the veins of 23 per cent of the people he examined without the disease also had blockages.
Concluding that CCSVI does not cause MS, he largely distanced himself from the theory he’d once endorsed – and “created a lot of controversy,” he admitted in an interview. “We have been really bombarded by questions.”
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partly why Zamboni's research is thought to be flawed
Quote:
Ultrasound machines, which Dr. Zamboni uses to look at neck veins, are unreliable and can be wildly inaccurate, if the people operating them aren’t well trained, he explained.
Dr. Baracchini also said that he has met Dr. Zamboni and dismisses the ultrasound device he employs as a “garbage machine.”
A panel of experts convened last summer by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research also has sounded the alarm, reporting that veins are notoriously difficult to examine with ultrasound technology, which can easily compress them to seem constricted.
The panel also noted that Dr. Zamboni’s research wasn’t “blind” – researchers knew which test patients had MS, and the patients knew they were receiving treatment that might help. In such circumstances, the report noted, there is a “natural human tendency to find what one is looking for.”
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Feel bad for MS sufferers.
edit, forgot to post the link to the article
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...articlecontent