Percutaneous bone marrow delivery helpful against angina

Direct intramyocardial percutaneous delivery of autologous bone marrow is a practical procedure that appears to be beneficial to patients with refractory myocardial angina, Italian researchers report in the March issue of the American Heart Journal.

Senior investigator Dr. Antonio Colombo of San Raffaele University Hospital, Milan told Reuters Health that this is “another study supporting the safety of intramyocardial injection of autologous bone marrow mononucleated cells.”The aim is to promote angiogenesis and support for this approach has been provided by recent experimental studies. Dr. Colombo noted that he and his colleagues have also conducted such studies in patients after MI and in those with chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy.In the current study, the researchers percutaneously injected freshly aspirated and filtered autologous bone marrow into target myocardial ischemic areas in 10 patients. The procedure was successful in all of the subjects, and at 12 months, there were no major cardiac events. Three patients showed a significant improvement in angina symptoms, all had improved quality of life and myocardial perfusion improved in the target regions in 4 of 8 evaluated patients.”The data obtained are encouraging,” concluded Dr. Columbo, “and support our next step to move to a new protocol utilizing a randomized design.”(Source: Am Heart J 2006;151:674-680: Reuters Health: Oncolink: April 2006.)