Dr. Zamboni reported in November 2017 results of a controlled clinical trial in MS

The BRAVE DREAMS Study included 115 people with relapsing-remitting MS. All of the participants stayed on their disease-modifying MS therapy. Two-thirds of the participants were randomly assigned to undergo an angioplasty procedure to open the extracranial vein (venous percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, or PTA), while one-third were assigned to undergo a sham procedure for comparison. After one year, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of clinical or MRI-detected disease outcomes. In their report, Dr. Zamboni and his co-authors conclude that “Venous PTA has proven to be a safe but largely ineffective technique; the treatment cannot be recommended in patients with MS.” The report was published online in JAMA Neurology and can be read by anyone.

A controlled clinical trial in Canada was completed in 2017 and results were published September 2018.

A Canadian CCSVI clinical trial of the venoplasty procedure in people with MS has been completed, and detailed results were published September 28, 2018 online on in the journal Neurology . The paper can be read by anyone. In March 8, 2017, preliminary results were presented at the Society for Interventional Radiology meeting in Washington, DC. The results from this clinical trial provide evidence suggesting that treating CCSVI did not improve symptoms or the course of MS.