Artery procedure raises new hopes
By Leslie Mann | Special to the Tribune
February 19, 2008
A new procedure launched at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in
Chicago in January offers hope to patients with critical limb
ischemia (CLI), or severely blocked leg arteries.
Doctors transplanted a purified form of the patients' own stem cells
into their leg muscles to grow new, small blood vessels and restore
circulation in their legs. Two patients underwent the procedure. They
are the first subjects in a 20-site national trial.
Without successful treatment, CLI patients have diminished blood
flow, which causes wounds that don't heal and gangrene, which can
lead to loss of toes, feet or legs. It results in more than 100,000
amputations a year.
"This is a dreadful disease, and the profession has failed to offer
much in the way of relief for these patients," said Dr. Douglas
Losordo, director of Northwestern University's Feinberg
Cardiovascular Research Institute and principal national investigator
for the trial. "Amputation rates are the same now as they were 30
years ago. We hope these trials will lead to treatment."
A CLI patient has pain when walking, and, as the disease progresses,
even when sitting. Because blood flow is decreased even more when
lying down, many patients have to sleep sitting up to lessen the pain.
Although people who smoke or have high cholesterol, diabetes or high
blood pressure are more likely to get CLI, Losordo said, he has seen
patients develop it without these risk factors.
After the trials are completed in late 2009, a larger study will be
conducted for FDA approval.
Losordo said a treatment for CLI could be available by 2012
http://www.chicagot
0219_health_
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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