OTTAWA — Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is giving the go-ahead for clinical trials of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis patients.

Aglukkaq says the federal government will fund trials of the so-called liberation therapy in spite of some recent studies that have cast doubt on narrowed neck veins as the primary cause of multiple sclerosis.

The minister says a scientific working group established by the federal government last August has agreed unanimously that a clinical trial should proceed "at the Phase 1 and Phase 2 levels."

Narrowed neck veins -- or chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency -- became the subject of numerous studies after Dr. Paolo Zamboni of Italy theorized it could be a factor in the development of MS.

Zamboni has speculated that reduced blood flow leaves iron deposits in the brain, leading to the neural lesions typical of MS -- and he contends that reversing the condition by unblocking neck veins using balloon angioplasty could help alleviate symptoms.

Many hopeful Canadian MS patients have gone abroad seeking the procedure, which isn't offered in this country.

However, some clinical studies -- most recently by a team at the University of Buffalo -- have indicated that CCSVI does not have a primary role in causing MS.http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110629/canada-to-fund-CCSVI-therapy-110629/