ACTRIMS 2022 | Central vein sign to aid in MS diagnostics
Jiwon Oh, MD, PhD, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, talks on the central vein sign (CVS) as a marker for multiple sclerosis (MS) to identify perivenular lesions. Studies have demonstrated that many individuals with white matter lesions have visible central veins which raises the likelihood of an MS diagnosis versus other white matter diseases. Together with clinical symptoms and conventional MRI scans, if validated in prospective studies, CVS would aid in MS diagnosis and distinguishing MS from diseases which mimic MS. This interview took place at the ACTRIMS Forum 2022 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
So the central vein sign is when you use appropriate sequences within white matter lesions, if there is a vein within the lesion, meaning that that lesion formed around a vein, or it’s a perivenular lesion, then you’ll be able to see it. And the reason it’s so useful in MS is many studies have shown that if an individual has white matter lesions and many of them have visible central veins, the likelihood of having a diagnosis of MS versus other white matter diseases is very high...
So the central vein sign is when you use appropriate sequences within white matter lesions, if there is a vein within the lesion, meaning that that lesion formed around a vein, or it’s a perivenular lesion, then you’ll be able to see it. And the reason it’s so useful in MS is many studies have shown that if an individual has white matter lesions and many of them have visible central veins, the likelihood of having a diagnosis of MS versus other white matter diseases is very high. And so this is really useful because obviously from a clinical standpoint when we diagnose MS these days, we use clinical symptoms as well as typical conventional or clinical MRIs. But to have another imaging measure that greatly helps you to differentiate MS from other kind of mimicking diseases would be really helpful. So likely the central vein sign, if it’s validated in prospective studies that are currently ongoing, will make it, I think, into the next diagnostic criteria as the latest imaging measure that greatly facilitates diagnosis.
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