Repairing Broken Hearts With Stem Cells (9/25/2006)
Dr. Andreas M. Zeiher is the chair of the Department of Medicine at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University
in Frankfurt and senior author of a study that has infused stem cells onto a damaged hearts. The stem
cells, harvested from the patients' own bone marrow, were then injected onto the heart in a single operation.
The operation was performed on several patients who had suffered a heart attack months, years, and even decades
before.
The stem cells boosted cardiac pumping ability by an average of 7% within 3 months of the operation. Though
the gain seems small, for a patient with a chronic condition it could be considered a major breakthrough.
The German researchers enlisted 75 patients who had all suffered heart attacks at least three months before the
treatment, and as long ago as 3 decades earlier. From each patient they extracted 50 milliliters of bone marrow
from the patients' hips. The stem cells were then isolated from the bone marrow and was inserted onto the heart.
All of the patients who received a dosage showed improvement.
In one specific case, an older patient whom had suffered a heart attack 3 decades ago, showed an 11% improvement
after the treatment. In the most dramatic improvement one patient, whom had suffered a heart attack 4 years earlier,
improved by 61%, suggesting that treatment early after the heart attack may actually increase the amount of
improvement.
Long term effects of the treatment are still needed to insure there are no ill effects, but Dr. Zeiher said the
results indicated that this could be a useful new strategy for treating chronic heart disease, for which there is
no known cure. The researchers suggested that it may also be possible to continue improving the heart with
repeated treatments.
Because bone marrow stem cells are so easy to extract, and can be collected from the patient at the same time they
are to be injected onto the heart, they also have the added benefit of not being rejected like a donor organ.
Mortgage Calculator - Renegade motorhomes - Cheap Flights - Phoenix Pools
Post Comments:
| 
Subscribe
