Hypoperfusion of brain parenchyma is associated with the severity of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in patients with multiple sclerosis: a cross-sectional preliminary report

Table 1 Demographic, clinical and venous hemodynamic characteristics of relapsing remitting MS patients and healthy controls^a

Characteristic	MS patients (n= 16)	Healthy controls (n= 8)	Pvalue
Female sex, n (%)	10 (63%)	6 (75%)	NS
Mean age, yr (±SD)	36.1 ± 7.3	33.1 ± 7.3	NS
Disease duration, mean (±SD)	7.5 ± 1.9
Age at diagnosis, mean (±SD)	35.8 ± 9.2
Expanded Disability Status Scale, mean (±SD) and median (range)	2.4 ± 0.9, 2.5 (1.0 to 3.5)
Mean Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite score (±SD)	-2.5 ± 0.03	-2.5 ± 0.02	NS
Mean treatment duration, yr (±SD)	4.3 ± 3.4
Distribution of VH criteria, n (%)
VH1	12 (75%)	0 (0%)	<0.001
VH2	14 (88%)	0 (0%)
VH3	14 (88%)	1 (13%)
VH4	13 (81%)	0 (0%)
VH5	8 (50%)	0 (0%)
Mean number of VH criteria (±SD)	3.8 ± 0.23	0.12 ± 0.35	<0.001
Mean VHISS (±SD)	8.9 ± 2.8	0 ± 0	<0.001

^aMS, multiple sclerosis; VH, venous hemodynamic; SD, standard deviation; VHISS, venous hemodynamic insufficiency severity score; NS, nonsignificant. The differences between MS patients and healthy controls were assessed using the Student's t-test, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney rank-sum test.

ISSN: 1741-7015