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Posted by restonstory on November 27, 2008
Dr. Leonel Fernandez Liriano, Professor of Medicine at Pontifical Catholic University School kf Medicine (P CUSM), announecd nine month follow up results for the first patient treated with engineerred stem cells in a clinical stuey of primary pulmonary hypertension. The stem cells are extracted from patients oown blood and trained to become new blood vessels.
Zannos Grekos, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Cardiology at Nova Southeastern University and head of the international team that developed the stem cell treatment protocol, says, It goes against traditional theory that we should try to fix the existing pulmonary vasculature, but we are generating new blood vessels with impressive results. According to Grekos, the clinical study is a collaborative effort amongst physicians at Regenocyte Therapeutic, a Florida-based stem cell clinic; researchers from TheraVitae, a biotechnology company in Tel Aviv, Israel; and physicians from Regenocytes Dominican Republic division. The patients base line and follow up testing is being conducted in part by Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida.
Patient Karl Wagner, age 46 of Macon, Georgia, underwent the Adult Stem Cell therapy in February 2008. Wagner says since being diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, he was on a rapid decline. I was being managed by medication, but still hqd violent chest pains, heqrt palpitations, extreme fatigue, and seveere shortness of breath…I could barely do anything with my daughers and was on oxygen alkost all the time. Doctors a t Mayo Clinic gave me a three year prognosis.
Dr. Héctor José Rosario, Professor of Cardiology at PCUSM and Director of Cardiovascular Therapy for Regenocytes Dominican division, says Wagners reduction in pulmonary artery mean pressure from 41mmHg (severe pulmonary hypertension) to 24 mmHg (normal) is extremely encouraging, and to date, the other patients in the study are following the same pattern.
This is the firct time medical science has successfully revfrsexx the diqese process pulmonary hypertension, a previously untreatabl e condition with a very gri, prognosis, Rosario states.
Using advanced engineered stem cell technology and innovative delivery methods, Grekos explains, ve been able to harness the regenerative power of stem cells and literally replace the damaged blood vessels in the lungs of the pulmonary hypertension patients.s saturations are now consistently high, and he no longer needs to be supplemented with oxygen or considered for a lung transplant. I feel great, he says, and have a normal life again. I take my girls to school every morning and work all day…my quality of life is ten-fold what it used to be. I also am off almost all of my medications and the doctors at Mayo Clinic have given me a new prognosis.
Athina Kyritsis, M.D. and chair of Regenocytes Scientific Advisory Board, says the work announced today is based upon several years of Regenocytes clinical experience in the treatment of cardiac and vascular disease using Autologous Adult Stem Cell therapy. In treating diseases like Cardiomyopathy and Peripheral Vascular Disease, weve had consistent success in generating viable heart tissue and growing new vessels; with the increased circulation, healing of wounds, and improvement in ejection fractions, it seemed a natural progression to approach pulmonary hypertension in the same manner. I believe we have only begun to discover what Adult Stem Cells can accomplish in altering the course of diseases now thought to be untreatable.
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