In heart failure patients can cell therapy help slow the patient’s decline? A new study looked to see if this is the case.
Heart disease in the number one cause of death for men and women in the United States. Each year about 610,000 people die because of this disease. That breaks down to about 1 in every 4 deaths annually. One of the main problems with heart disease is that plaque builds up in the arteries. This plaque buildup then causes the arteries to narrow. Once the arteries become narrowed too much, blood flow is restricted, leading to a possible heart attack.
With that said, the odds are getting better for people to survive a heart attack. Even though more and more people are surviving the heart attacks, damage to the body may still be present due to reduced blood supply.
According to news reports, the study looked at cell therapy using cells from bone marrow. Researchers gave 60 patients with heart failure injection therapy. The injection was given into the patients’ hearts. The researchers then compared the results of the individuals who were given the therapy to those who were given the placebo. Both sets of patients had similar medical conditions.
The results revealed that the year following treatment the patients who received the therapy had a 37% lower death and hospitalization rate for heart failure types of problems as compared to the patients who received the placebo. In addition, 3.4% of the patients in the cell therapy group died whereas 13.7% of the patients in the placebo group passed away.
Even though the cell therapy has shown good results, researchers say that more testing will need to be done.
To read more about the specifics surrounding the study click HERE to read the story in support of this post.
