“New observations have uncovered bio-mechanical barriers that appear to give rise to multiple sclerosis, and, even more excitingly, these barriers may be therapeutically addressable.”

The paper, titled “The Possible Role of Cranio-Cervical Trauma and Abnormal CSF Hydrodynamics in the Genesis of Multiple Sclerosis,” has just been published and appears in the latest issue of the journal Physiological Chemistry and Physics and Medical NMR (Sept. 20, 2011, 41: 1-17). It is co-authored by MRI researchers Raymond V. Damadian and David Chu.

Commenting on the study, the lead researcher and president of FONAR, Raymond V. Damadian stated, “These new observations have uncovered biomechanical barriers that appear to give rise to multiple sclerosis, and, even more excitingly, these barriers may be therapeutically addressable.” Damadian is the medical doctor who discovered the abnormal signals from tissue that are the basis of every MRI image made today and who went on to invent the MRI and build the world’s first MRI by hand at New York‘s Downstate Medical Center.

The findings are based on viewing the real-time flow of cerebrospinal fluid in a series of eight randomly chosen patients with multiple sclerosis.

The cerebrospinal fluid, known as CSF, lubricates the brain and spinal cord. Utilizing FONAR’s patented Advanced UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI technology, the team was able to view the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in and out of the brain with the patients lying down and upright. These invaluable dual observations have only been possible since the invention of an MRI capable of imaging the patient upright.