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news.University of Rochester Medical Center researchers have launched a study that will examine whether transplanted stem cells can be safely used to treat damaged heart muscle in patients just after their first heart attack.
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The first-of-its-kind study in heart attack patients will seek to demonstrate the safety, and roughly measure efficacy, of three intravenous doses of adult human stem cells versus placebo in lessening damage to heart muscle within 10 days of a patient’s first heart attack. The treatment recently passed an early safety test and has been approved for study in more patients at higher doses.
“The potential to re-build damaged heart muscle by implanting stem cells that then become new muscle cells is one of the most exciting in cardiology,” said Dr Craig Narins, assistant professor of cardiology at the medical center and principal investigator for the current study. “This study will seek to ensure that stem cell therapy is safe in treating heart failure, a major cause of death in heart attack survivors.”