• Home
  • News
    • Politics / Govt
    • Legislature
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
    • Archives
  • Sports
    • Badgers
    • Packers
      • Titletown Report
    • Brewers
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support

Wisconsin Radio Network

Wisconsin News and Sports

You are here: Home / Health / Medicine / Man's heart is treated with own stem cells

Man's heart is treated with own stem cells

March 12, 2007 By WRN Contributor

A man from Middleton is the first Wisconsinite to have his heart disease treated with his own stem cells in an attempt to improve his quality of life.

Doctors hope to stimulate the formation of new blood vessels into blood-deprived areas of the heart by injecting adult stem cells harvested from the patient's own bone marrow. The cells are precursor cells to the formation of blood vessels.

"Getting them out of the bone marrow is really the task that's required and then we injected them locally right in the area where there's a deficiency in blood supply. So the goal is to create new blood vessels."

Doctor Amish Raval, MD, is head of cardiovascular regenerative medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health , which is among the first medical centers in the country taking part in the clinical trial. Scientists want to see whether a patient's own stem cells can treat persistent chest pain caused by a form of severe coronary artery disease. Raval says patients, such as 68-year-old Steve Myrah, will have sporadic follow-up checkups for up to a year.

"A week from now, then thereafter three months, and then six months, nine months and then a year. And the follow-up includes a visit, discussing his symptoms, in addition to a 28-day diary where he actually calls in the number of times he has chest pain in a day."

He'll also have a series of scheduled MRIs and nuclear imaging to monitor the benefits of the procedure. Raval says there've been only a couple dozen patients so far in this clinical trial across the nation. The goal is to enroll about 150 patients nationwide, 10 in Wisconsin.

According to the American Heart Association , coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease and is the leading cause of death in the United States.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (1:52 MP3)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Health / Medicine Tagged With: stem cells



Featured Stories

Report: Former Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. to sign with Brewers

Panthers rally to upset Wright State in Horizon League quarterfinals

Jokic leads Denver in rout of the Bucks

Can Packers make a splash in free agency? Aaron Jones?

Wisconsin was better but still falls short at Purdue

TwitterFacebook

Sports Headlines

Report: Former Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. to sign with Brewers

Panthers rally to upset Wright State in Horizon League quarterfinals

Jokic leads Denver in rout of the Bucks

Can Packers make a splash in free agency? Aaron Jones?

Wisconsin was better but still falls short at Purdue

More Sports

Tweets by @WRN

Get our news delivered to your inbox:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Copyright © 2021 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC