Results of a recent study suggest that stem cells could remove the need for heart transplants in people suffering from heart failure. Hans Fernando Rocha Dohmann of the Pro-Cardiaco Hospital in Rio de Janeiro treated five seriously ill heart failure patients with stem cells extracted from their bone marrow and injected into the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber. Results of the study showed that four out of five of the patients had such a marked improvement in blood supply after the treatment that they no longer needed a heart transplant. Dr Michael Rosen of Columbia University, New York, said of the research: “This is the first approach where you have an opportunity to actually heal a heart. It’s going to be a very long road, but it is the most exciting thing I’ve seen in my 40 years as a doctor in this field.”
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 11th September 2003.
