Inject stem cells to save heart muscle

By the end of this year, the National Institute of Cardiology can introduce technology to use stem cells to treat heart attack. Tests on six patients now have positive results.

Dr. Pham Manh Hung, general secretary of Vietnam Association of Cardiology, said: "We have used stem cells to treat myocardial infarction for six patients. The initial effect is not to detect dangerous complications. dangerously, myocardial contractility improves by 8-15%, all patients are very happy ".

The latest patient of Dr. Hung and his colleagues is Mr. Nghiem Xuan Quang, 59 years old, in Hanoi. Mr. Quang has a severe heart attack, has been intervened with a stent and placed a stent, but the ejection fraction is below 40%. For these patients, the need for an additional treatment and use of stem cells is one of the measures being tested.

There are no side effects

Dr. Hung and patient Nghiem Xuan Quang, before Mr. Quang was injected with stem cells (Photo: Lan Anh)

According to Dr. Hung, their method is to find stem cells from the bone marrow of patients and inject into the coronary arteries through blood vessels. Except for Mr. Quang who had just been injected with stem cells, five patients who had previously been treated with this technique had been monitored for 3-6 months. However, Dr. Hung cautiously said that the results were relatively safe, there were no serious side effects and complications. In terms of disease changes, many people have little but all patients improve the heart muscle contraction by 8-15%.

Mr. Nguyen Lan Viet, director of the National Heart Institute, said that recently when he was studying in Germany, he found colleagues in Germany used stem cells to treat about 200 patients with heart attacks. This is a relatively new direction, so the German doctors are very cautious, but they claim the initial results are positive.

In Vietnam, using stem cells to treat cardiovascular diseases is a "branch" of the major topic: using stem cells to treat cancer, cardiovascular, eye diseases . being assigned by the Ministry of Health Hanoi Medical School chaired research. Thanks to this budget, about ten patients will receive almost free treatment (stem cell search and injection). So far, six patients have participated in the program, including Mr. Quang.

Costs halved

"This is the easiest application. There are many other applications that can use stem cells to treat patients with no other treatments such as dilated cardiomyopathy, many damaged coronary arteries. no surgery, no heating, no intervention, pathology of peripheral arteries . " - Dr. Hung said. Mr. Hung hopes that by this time, at the end of 2008, the National Institute of Cardiology can put technology into practical application.

According to Mr. Nguyen Lan Viet, there are a number of countries in the world and in Southeast Asia applying stem cells to treat cardiovascular diseases, the most among them are Singapore and Thailand. In terms of cost, a process of treating a heart attack with the participation of stem cell technology will cost about $ 20,000. But in Vietnam, Dr. Pham Manh Hung hopes to cost only about half of Thailand.

According to Dr. Hung, they, like many world scientists, are still searching for the stem cells (stem cells from the umbilical cord or cells from the bone marrow .) which are best; Which injection is the best . but he is also very hopeful.

LAN ANH