DELIVERING STEM CELLS TO THE HEART ON BIOLOGICAL SUTURES: EFFECTS ON REGIONAL MECHANICAL FUNCTION

摘要

Heart failure (HF) affects over 5 million people in the US alone, costs society over $10B per year in medical care costs, and is the single most common hospital discharge diagnosis. Despite our advances in many areas of cardiovascular disease, we have made little progress in treating HF, largely due to the fact that few treatments actually aim to treat myocardial infarction (Ml), which is the underlying cause of most cases of HF. Once a patient exhibits HF, their long-term survival is in jeopardy, exhibiting less than 50% probability of survival 5 years after diagnosis.