With many doctors still unconvinced that stem cell therapy for the heart amounts to anything more than mere patient "feel good" psychology and the jury still out on the number of stem cells required for optimal results, Cordis- a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary company- is paving the way for the pioneers to prove that it works.
At the 2006 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session, doctors from Vienna Medical Centre in Austria established that patients who received more stem cells experienced a higher degree of cardiac improvement. Although the doctor cautiously said that more work needs to be done, he does admit that this news is encouraging for patients who suffer from serious heart disease.
The improvements after either intramyocardial injection (direct into heart muscle) or intra-coronary injection (like the angioplasty procedure) after six months found a 4.7% increase in patient's heart muscle contractions. Interestingly, the patients also experienced a 4.9% decrease in blood flow problems upon receipt of a stress inducing drug -I'm not exactly sure what this means but I'll find out.
Cordis announced in a press release that they have come up with 2 supporting products for stem cell application- one is the NOGA system which is a high-tech cardiac navigation system to take precise pictures of the heart; the second is a funky named "Myostar injection catheter" although I am not sure what additional benefits it may have over existing catheters for the delivery of stem cells.
This field has a long way to go and its good that large caps are throwing their hat into supporting revolutionary medical treatments -foreseeing that these procedures may become commonplace in the future- and that they want to have a big part in it.
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