City helps pump hope to heart patients
Friday, February 8, 2008
Until recent years, patients with chronic heart failure usually
received a very pessimistic prognosis, frequently with a five-year
survival rate of under 50 percent -- an outlook more bleak than that
of the average patient with a cancer diagnosis.
But this year, as the American Heart Association observes heart
failure awareness week Feb. 10-16, modern research and therapy coming
from heart centers such as Memphis have significantly improved their
prospects.
Too often people mistakenly believe that heart failure means the
heart has stopped or is about to stop. Heart failure simply means
that the heart is not pumping blood through the body as well as it
should.
It is a common condition that usually develops slowly as the heart
muscle weakens and needs to work harder to keep blood flowing
throughout the body. Many people with heart failure are not aware
that they have it, because some of the most common symptoms,
tiredness and shortness of breath, often are mistaken for the normal
aging process.
In Memphis, we're doing something about this life-threatening
condition as the city continues to build on its reputation as one of
this country's leading heart research centers. The efforts under way
here give heart patients hope that, with proper treatment, they will
live longer and enjoy an enhanced quality of life. Several new
medications and medical devices are having a major impact on chronic
heart failure therapy. Special research centers in Memphis were
deeply involved in the clinical trials that studied these innovative
procedures years before they were commonly available to patients
throughout the nation. More important, our current and future
research will continue to target improvements in congestive heart
failure and offer new and improved therapeutic options.
The Research Group at the Memphis-based Stern Cardiovascular Center,
for example, is deeply involved in one of the most promising areas
for heart patients: stem cell research. Heart specialists are
examining how muscle fibers taken from a patient's leg can be used as
a source for stem cells. Once those stem cells are injected into the
heart, they can produce new heart muscle cells without the need for
surgery.
Other research advancements under way in Memphis include:
New pacemakers that emit electrical impulses and improve heart muscle
strength.
New medications that improve blood flow in patients with severe
shortness of breath, which is significantly improving an area of
congestive heart failure therapy that was difficult to treat in years
past.
Human genes, packaged in a virus similar to that of the common cold,
that are put through catheters into blocked arteries to grow new
blood vessels around the heart without the need for surgery.
New therapies that reduce the formation of scar tissue inside the
heart muscle and reduce chronic heart failure problems.
Therapy to treat heart failure began 200 years ago with the discovery
of digitalis as the active ingredient in a preparation using foxglove
flower, which had been used in England to treat fluid retention and
shortness of breath. More than two centuries later, we finally are
entering an era in which modern research combined with scientific
advancements will one day -- hopefully soon -- tame this dreaded
disease.
Dr. Frank A. McGrew III is director of clinical research at the Stern
Cardiovascular Center and a former president of the Tennessee
Cardiovascular Society.
http://www.commerci
helps-pump-hope-
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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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