It’s not really device-related, but it is all over the news media today so we should at least provide a link to the Lancet article in which researchers at Cedars-Sinai Hospital found intracoronary infusion of autologous CDCs after myocardial infarction to be safe and seemingly effective, warranting the expansion of such therapy to phase 2 study. Compared with controls at 6 months, MRI analysis of patients treated with CDCs showed reductions in scar mass (p=0·001), increases in viable heart mass (p=0·01) and regional contractility (p=0·02), and regional systolic wall thickening (p=0·015) although end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and left ventricular ejection fraction did not differ between groups by 6 months .
It sounds like extremely encouraging news, despite the fact that its a single study on a small patient cohort, but the thought that reintroducing cultured host stem cells into the scarred myocardium of a post-infarct patient is potentially game changing.
Source; The Lancet
published: February 14, 2012 in: Academic Studies, Cardio, Clinical Studies/Trials