CCSVI and MS: a statement from the European Society of neurosonology and cerebral hemodynamics.
To systematically review the ultrasonographic criteria proposed for the diagnosis of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI). The authors analyzed the five ultrasonographic criteria, four extracranial and one intracranial, suggested for the diagnosis of CCSVI in multiple sclerosis (MS), together with the references from which these criteria were derived and the main studies that explored the physiology of cerebrospinal drainage. The proposed CCSVI criteria are questionable due to both methodological and technical errors: criteria 1 and 3 are based on a scientifically incorrect application of data obtained in a different setting; criteria 2 and 4 have never been validated before; criterion 2 is technically incorrect; criteria 3 and 5 are susceptible to so many external factors that it is difficult to state whether the data collected are pathological or a variation from the normal. It is also unclear how it was decided that two or more of these five ultrasound criteria may be used to diagnose CCSVI, since no validation of these criteria was performed by different and independent observers nor were they blindly compared with a validated gold-standard investigation. The European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH) has considerable concerns regarding the accuracy of the proposed criteria for CCSVI in MS. Therefore, any potentially harmful interventional treatment such as transluminal angioplasty and/or stenting should be strongly discouraged.
Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani, 5, 35128 Padua, Italy. claudiobaracchini@tin.it
Claudio
C
Baracchini
José M
JM
Valdueza
Massimo
M
Del Sette
Galina
G
Baltgaile
Eva
E
Bartels
Natan M
NM
Bornstein
Juergen
J
Klingelhoefer
Carlos
C
Molina
Kurt
K
Niederkorn
Mario
M
Siebler
Matthias
M
Sturzenegger
Bernd E
BE
Ringelstein
David
D
Russell
Laszlo
L
Csiba
D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014689:Venous Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology