World’s first enhanced stem cell therapy for heart attacks begins in Ottawa

Scientists at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute have begun a new experimental treatment today, which will use a heart attack victim's own cells in an effort to repair their damaged heart.

Harriet Garrow, a resident of Cornwall, is the first patient to be treated in the two-year study. According to an OHRI statement, her heart was extensively damage due to a heart attack she suffered on July 2nd.

"I am learning that my life will change fairly significantly because of my heart attack," said Garrow, according the OHRI statement. "So, I am thrilled to play a part in this research that could help people like me in the future and, who knows, perhaps even my children and grandchildren — although I hope they won’t need it, of course."

Since this is a randomized, double-blind controlled study, neither she nor the researchers will know if she's receiving the enhanced stem cells, the non-enhanced stem cells or the placebo until after the study is finished. Still, according to Huffington Post, she says she's already feeling better and stronger, although she does get fatigued if she exerts herself too much.

The new method that the OHRI researchers are using involves drawing blood from the patient from between five and thirty days after they've suffered a major heart attack, and genetically enhancing stem cells from the blood with a gene that promotes improved tissue regeneration and new growth of blood vessels.

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The study, which is called ENACT-AMI, or Enhanced Angiogenic Cell Therapy – Acute Myocardial Infarction, will involve 100 patients over the next two years, starting at OHRI and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Other hospitals will be added on as it progresses, including Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and the Montreal Heart Institute.

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