Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD: Central Vein Sign as Potential Multiple Sclerosis Biomarker

“Adding a sequence that might be sensitive to central veins is a relatively easy addition to make and would in turn make the diagnosis a little easier and accelerate the diagnosis as well.”

After receiving a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Cleveland Clinic researchers will assess whether central vein sign (CVS) can be a reliable and useful biomarker for diagnosing patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the new CAVS-MS study. CVS, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based biomarker, has been known to be identified in MS-associated white matter lesions.

The co-principal investigator of the study and neurologist at Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis, Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD, will be tasked with leading the study and uncovering more about whether CVS can prove to lower the rates of misdiagnosing MS. Other biomarkers such as neurofilament light chain (NfL) have shown some success, but the rates of misdiagnosis are still close to 1 in every 5 patients.

In this interview with NeurologyLive, Ontaneda provides insight on why Cleveland Clinic specifically chose CVS, and why if successful, could have a major impact on clinical diagnosing going forward.