Click here for Phase 1 information.
Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center's CASA-MS research takes a fresh look at factors that cause MS progression for 10-15% of people with MS (pwMS).
WHY
We believe that studying severely progressive MS will provide important clues to benefit everyone with MS.
WHY NOT BEFORE?
Research about this segment of the MS population has rarely been done for logistical and financial reasons. Most people at this stage of MS are home-bound or reside in nursing homes. Even if enough subjects could be located, there would be extremely high additional testing costs. Pursuing this avenue of research has been considered impossible.
HOW
BNAC's Advisory Council connected the Center with The Boston Home, a skilled-nursing facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts that specializes in residential care for pwMS needing 24-hour care. A research partnership was established that resulted in a unique and comprehensive pilot study was designed comparing symptom progression of people with MS requiring 24-hour care with those of the same age, sex, and similar number of years with a diagnosis of MS but who have much less disease progression. The Council removed the financial barrier by raising $500,000.
FINDINGS
on October23, 2024, Robert Zivadinov, principal investigator, presented a summary of three published papers from the first CASA-MS pilot study to Boston Home residents and by zoom. The key findings:
Grey matter volume, not lesions, are key factors in severe MS
Novel tools can better assess grey matter lesions.
Click here for University at Buffalo Press Release
WHAT'S NEXT?
CASA-MS 2 will build on the pilot study findings.
BNAC has received IRB approval for a follow-up study of 20 subjects with severe progression and a control group of 20 with much milder progression. The key questions to be answered are:
Does gray matter in the brain change over time for these subjects?
What does analysis of data from the low-resonance portable MRI show?
Do these two pilot study findings justify further research?
To answer these questions, all subjects will have brain scans using the same high resolution 7T scanner. Additionally, they will all be scanned on the same 1.5 T portable scanner. This low-resolution scanner uses enhanced sequences and artificial intelligence that produce images comparable to higher-resolution, more expensive scanners.
Other aspects to highlight?
COST
We need to raise $275,000 by 6/30/2025. To date, we have already raised $236,000 (86%) in gifts and pledges
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please consider a gift or pledge
Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center's CASA-MS research takes a fresh look at factors that cause MS progression for 10% of people with MS (pwMS).
WHY
We believe that studying severely progressive MS will provide important clues to benefit everyone with MS.
WHY NOT BEFORE?
Research about this segment of the MS population has rarely been done for logistical and financial reasons. Most people at this stage of MS are home-bound or reside in nursing homes. Even if enough subjects could be located, there would be extremely high additional testing costs. Pursuing this avenue of research has been considered impossible.
HOW
BNAC's Advisory Council connected the Center with The Boston Home, a skilled-nursing facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts that specializes in residential care for pwMS needing 24-hour care. A research partnership was established that resulted in a unique and comprehensive pilot study was designed comparing symptom progression of people with MS requiring 24-hour care with those of the same age, sex, and similar number of years with a diagnosis of MS but who have much less disease progression. The Council removed the financial barrier by raising $500,000.
FINDINGS
on October23, 2024, Robert Zivadinov, principal investigator, presented a summary of three published papers from the first CASA-MS pilot study to Boston Home residents and by zoom. The key findings:
Grey matter volume, not lesions, are key factors in severe MS
Novel tools can better assess grey matter lesions.
(Insert links to Press Release and slide deck, VIDEO)
WHAT'S NEXT?
CASA-MS 2 will build on the pilot study findings.
BNAC has received IRB approval for a follow-up study of 20 subjects with severe progression and a control group of 20 with much milder progression. The key questions to be answered are:
Does gray matter in the brain change over time for these subjects?
What does analysis of data from the low-resonance portable MRI show?
Do these two pilot study findings justify further research?
To answer these questions, all subjects will have brain scans using the same high resolution 7T scanner. Additionally, they will all be scanned on the same 1.5 T portable scanner. This low-resolution scanner uses enhanced sequences and artificial intelligence that produce images comparable to higher-resolution, more expensive scanners.
Other aspects to highlight?
COST
We need to raise $275,000 by 6/30/2025. To date, we have already raised $236,000 (86%) in gifts and pledges
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please consider a gift or pledge 
Innovative Study Explores Why Progressive MS Leads Some to Need 24-Hour Care
Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center's CASA-MS research takes a fresh look at factors that cause MS progression for 10% of people with MS (pwMS).
WHY
We believe that studying severely progressive MS will provide important clues to benefit everyone with MS.
WHY NOT BEFORE?
Research about this segment of the MS population has rarely been done for logistical and financial reasons. Most people at this stage of MS are home-bound or reside in nursing homes. Even if enough subjects could be located, there would be extremely high additional testing costs. Pursuing this avenue of research has been considered impossible.
HOW
BNAC's Advisory Council connected the Center with The Boston Home, a skilled-nursing facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts that specializes in residential care for pwMS needing 24-hour care. A research partnership was established that resulted in a unique and comprehensive pilot study was designed comparing symptom progression of people with MS requiring 24-hour care with those of the same age, sex, and similar number of years with a diagnosis of MS but who have much less disease progression. The Council removed the financial barrier by raising $500,000.
FINDINGS
on October23, 2024, Robert Zivadinov, principal investigator, presented a summary of three published papers from the first CASA-MS pilot study to Boston Home residents and by zoom. The key findings:
Grey matter volume, not lesions, are key factors in severe MS
Novel tools can better assess grey matter lesions.
(Insert links to Press Release and slide deck, VIDEO)
WHAT'S NEXT?
CASA-MS 2 will build on the pilot study findings.
BNAC has received IRB approval for a follow-up study of 20 subjects with severe progression and a control group of 20 with much milder progression. The key questions to be answered are:
Does gray matter in the brain change over time for these subjects?
What does analysis of data from the low-resonance portable MRI show?
Do these two pilot study findings justify further research?
To answer these questions, all subjects will have brain scans using the same high resolution 7T scanner. Additionally, they will all be scanned on the same 1.5 T portable scanner. This low-resolution scanner uses enhanced sequences and artificial intelligence that produce images comparable to higher-resolution, more expensive scanners.
Other aspects to highlight?
COST
We need to raise $275,000 by 6/30/2025. To date, we have already raised $236,000 (86%) in gifts and pledges
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please consider a gift or pledge
There are many reasons such research has not been done and, consequently, no agreed-upon clinical definition of severe MS even exists. The costs to study people with severe MS are much higher. New diagnostic and analytical tools suitable for severely disabled patients must be developed. Reaching prospective participants who have severely limited mobility is difficult.
Because insights gained from our research of people with advanced MS will help us understand disease progression that could affect anyone with MS, the study will benefit everyone with MS, regardless of their current disability status, as well as all who care for them.
We hope to learn what factors are associated with severe MS progression by comparing a group of 60 people with MS who require 24-hour care to a similar group of 60 having much less progression. In addition to learning better how to identify these factors, we hope the study will lead to better treatment and care for people in this severely advanced stage of MS.
GOALS OF THE CASA-MS STUDY
The primary goal of the CASA- MS study is to learn what factors are associated with severe MS progression by comparing a group of 57 people with MS who require 24-hour care to a similar group of 57 having much less progression. To that end, we will develop and validate new diagnostic imaging and analytical tools to measure disease progression and cognitive processing speed and will study the effect of physical disability on mental status.
Currently, there is no recognized way to describe the stage of MS for those who are bedridden and need 24-hour care at home or in residential care facilities. Invisible to the world, they are only occasionally seen by neurologists and they are unstudied by the research community.
Funding
This $1.5 million study was created at the encouragement of BNAC's Advisory Council, which is comprised of people with MS and others whose lives have been touched by MS. Thanks to the Council, The Annette Funicello Fund for their $100,000 Challenge Grant and all the CASA-MS donors, more than $500,000 has been raised towards our goal.
CASA-MS Results Reported 2/23/23 at Annual ACTRIMS Meeting
The STORY BEHIND OUR NAME AND LOGO
In creating a name that aptly describes the study, we wanted to also recognize our collaboration with The Boston Home, a long-term residential care facility located near Boston that specializes in serving people with Multiple Sclerosis who need 24-hour care. It is home to the main cohort of this progressive MS study. Besides being an exemplary care facility, The Boston Home is truly a nurturing home for its residents. The word casa, which means home in several languages, is an inspiration and a fitting name for our study.
Our logo is the result of pairing watercolor artworks by Rhonda and Mary Jo, two Boston Home residents with advanced MS who were close friends before Mary Jo passed away. They shared the challenges of living with MS, and the joy of participating in The Boston Home's individulaized, adaptive art program.
Just as Mary Jo's sun rises over Rhonda's casa, the CASA-MS logo, we hope this vital MS research will contribute to the dawn of a new day for people living with progressive MS.
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