Interview with Zamboni

[Guest guest]

Nadia is a young girl who can teach you to write poetry, has a wonderful smile

and bright eyes behind his hidden desire to live a peaceful life, safe from a

disabling disease like multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease of central nervous

system, in Italy are affected 57 thousand people, in the world 2.5 million, are

mainly young adults between 20 and 40 years. The disease has a progressive

course. In relapsing-remitting MS, which shows 85% of cases, the patient

manifests disturbances such as numbness of part of the body, difficulty in

movement, fatigue, Double vision, difficulty disappear and reproduce worse, to

the paralysis. The causes of the disease are still unknown, but the fallout in

some cases you can mitigate.

Fingolimod the news recently, which is the active ingredient in this pill

anti-multiple sclerosis that could be marketed since 2011, acting on white blood

cells that cause inflammation that affects the central nervous system. In

studies published in The New England Journal, the pill tested on about 2,500

patients have achieved significant results: the impact of the disease would be

reduced by 52% compared to the results of the older drug-based therapies

(interferon injected intra-muscular). But there is also the result of a search

of an extroarinary all Italian, conducted by Prof. Zamboni, which is at the

heart of the debate, scientific and not, as a possible therapy for relapses of

multiple sclerosis. Research conducted by Professor Paolo Zamboni, vascular

diseases of the heart of Ferrara, led to the discovery of CCSVI, a pathology of

venous dysfunction which consists of some veins (especially the jugular and

azygos) that have obstructions that don’t

allow the normal flow of blood to the brain and cause a reflux of blood to the

brain or spinal cord flammable.

The experimental study conducted by Professor Zamboni in collaboration with Dr.

Francesco Salvi, a neurologist at the Bellaria Hospital in Bologna, and the

subsequent trials of Buffalo and Poland have shown a striking correlation

between CCSVI and multiple sclerosis, in fact as much as 90% of patients present

the disorder. Found that the shrinkage of these veins using ultrasound, therapy

is a simple angioplasty intervention developed by the team of Dr. Zamboni that

with the introduction of a catheter into the veins fitted with a balloon, is

able to resolve the problem. The effects on patients are immediate: blood

circulation has improved and the reflux is eliminated, the patient experiences a

decrease in fatigue and a marked improvement in the quality of life, reduces the

number of relapses and active lesions of the brain and spinal cord . We are

facing a unique scenario that could open alternative to multiple sclerosis and

supplemental expensive drug

therapies through (which are effective only in one third of patients). We talk

about 2000 euros per month for each patient, for a total Italian health spending

by almost a year and a half billion euros. An important response has been given

to this sensational discovery despite the skepticism. An official statement of

21 January of Health Service of Emilia Romagna, agreed with the University

Hospital of Ferrara, " A journey of deepening to act on the preliminary results

of research on diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis Professor Zamboni.

"

Now it's your health service Emilia Romagna show a willingness to exceed the

limit given by the trial CCSVI and to allow this type of diagnostic and

treatment hospital in Ferrara, at least, with a clear path on which the patients

can be accepted. It will be a useful first step to crown the efforts of the

research of Professor Zamboni, those of Dr. Salvi and hopes of the multiple

sclerosis Italians.

Professor Zamboni where you can treat CCSVI in Italy?

Until the end of trials CCSVI can only be treated within clinical trials are

allowed, so far I have been able to cure this disease in the experimental phase

here in our hospital of Ferrara. I was able to do in their spare time when the

operating room was not fully occupied, gaining space within what was the

hospital routine, because this still is not a service offered. Even the

diagnostic CCSVI I could only do on Saturday or Sunday, after working hours, if

you know what I mean, it's clear that I can do this for 100 patients, I can not

do for 10 thousand that would be required. Until they are made from an

administrative point of view in the state bureaucracy to accept these patients,

I can not accept them, at least until such time as we do not have permission to

operate a routine activity in hospitals. This happens because there is always a

time limit to get the effective application of therapy to the patient when a

trial ends.

But since the disease was found and we see that these veins are actually

clogged, what would be the impediment to operate?

This is because the CCSVI is unknown, and yet there is no administrative code

provision. For example, the review also used to determine the filling of the

veins, it is true that an ultrasound, but it is a test done with a system, with

a timeline and a protocol, which currently is not expected to officially own

because it originates from a research laboratory. However now certainly the

committee is ready to be able to perform it in what may be a normal clinic. But

again, in public I was given a code, a reversal of performance, then I run these

people after working hours, do not know how to accommodate them. There's a hole

in the administrative bureaucracy that does not depend on me and I can not

overcome.

It is rumored that there is a form of scrambling of its discovery in favor of

pharmaceutical companies.

We may think that there is this, but what I find is that there is a huge

opposition from area " conservative " of neurology, not only Italian but also

internationally. Then behind that there may be many of these neurologists that

can have a conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies. We can think of

this but we have no evidence. I think the fact is not so limiting, and most

limiting is that there is a cultural obscurantism. That is, and this is

outrageous, I still received a few requests from neurologists to come here in

Ferrara, for example to learn how to make the diagnosis of CCSVI, and I'd just

happy to being able to donate the method because they can apply in their

respective territorial realities. If this already happened, we could not think

of the multinationals. And it is more serious than neurologists do not have the

scientific curiosity in front of a big problem that affects young people.

Neurologists lack the interest and tend to

denigrate and deny my discovery, while I have given the scientific evidence of

CCSVI. If a blood vessel is closed in a particular area, which is an irrefutable

scientific proof, there is no need to be skeptical, but still exist in 2010 that

neurologists that don’t even bother to check the patient’s sclerosis and

whether have closed vessels or not. This is unacceptable.

What were the reactions abroad about its discovery?

Sure, there are been more intereste than what we received in Italy, but we also

got interest where there was at least some skeptical constructive criticism. At

Stanford, one of the leading universities in the United States, 15 days after I

made my research public, they began to study CCSVI with satisfactory results.

But we are talking of a private university among the largest in the world where

people are charged a payment.

Operations have also taken place in Poland, and the first steps were made in

Paris and Ireland, since the official publication of the discovery was made in

December of last year. I myself started to work for American patients that the

ethics committee of the University of New York (in Buffalo) came to me, in

Ferrara, and underwent intervention, I believe this has never happened in the

history of medicine . So let's say that over time the interest of science

discovery, especially the international one, was abrupt, even at the risk of

finding outdated due to the slowness of Italian research.

The care of CCSVI may be an alternative to drugs used in therapy for multiple

sclerosis?

Scenarios are possible, but right now we can not know, we have no scientific

evidence. We only know that the people we worked on, felt a lot better than with

medication alone. But what is the real reason for this? That the person

doesn’t end in a wheelchair or that the person has to take less drugs?

How much does the surgery to treat CCSVI cost in Italy?

In the Emilia Romagna regional health care system this is an intervention that

costs 3,100 euros, given that a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis costs

25,000 euros a year. So in the course of 10 years and 250.000 Euros, the cost of

the intervention is not something that makes the difference.

What were the reactions of the patients after surgery?

Patients have written me letters already 3 or 4 years ago after the first

intervention, I am moved and I have say that the most extraordinary part of this

research was the human level of it. This is the the most extraordinary thing

that remains inside of me and my extreme satisfaction of the patients that were

treated. The results were obvious: best quality of life, improved to some extent

of certain things, an improvement of disabling symptoms that right now none of

the commonly used drugs can improve and that is not able to cure vascular

disease, and THIS indicates that vascular disease could be responsible for the

symptoms related to multiple sclerosis.

Who helped financially in this research?

I have performed research in cardiovascular care that gave me access to funds to

carry out the search for correlation between CCSVI and multiple sclerosis. But

my studies have never been helped and sponsored by anyone, only in the last two

years a foundation was set up that was called the Hilarescere. Otherwise, the

research took place only through the good will of the people, the extraordinary

people who believed in what I said.

What role did Dr. Salvi in establishing correlations between the CCSVI and

multiple sclerosis?

The comparison with the neurologist was essential, however, because although

this vascular disease is a vascular disease in a patient with a neurological

disease, in which Dr. Salvi has decades of experience, it is he who carried out

all measures to see what changed in these people in terms of neurological

details. His mind was indispensable. If you would have doctors like doctor

Salvi, we wouldn’t the issues with the drug and the bureaucratic obstacles.

Then is there a clinical governance that goes beyond everything, that is the

ability to decide for themselves, to their knowledge and belief of a doctor who

is related with the patient. If we would have more people like Doctor Salvi, we

wouldn’t be discussing right now.