With the potential to save millions of lives worldwide, Australia’s top heart specialists believe they have found a treatment to stop heart disease in its tracks.
The groundbreaking discovery which involves using adult stem cells from patients to repair their own hearts will be revealed today by experts from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital.
With the ability to repair dead tissue in the heart as well as generate new blood vessels, the treatment is a world-first.
The changes appear to be permanent.
Claiming 17 million lives each year, heart disease is the world’s #1 killer.
Accounting for 35% of all deaths in Australia, 50,000 of the 3.5 million sufferers die annually.
In order to release beneficial stem cells from bone marrow into the bloodstream the new treatment involves injecting patients with a hormone to accomplish this task.
The cells restore circulation and create new blood vessels in the heart to boost heart function.