Beilinson's 'unique' experiment to help heart patients

[Jack]

Cardiologists at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus claimed Tuesday to have performed "the first experiment of its kind in the world aimed at improving the condition of severely ill heart patients" by injecting a virus into the heart muscles to create new oxygen-carrying blood vessels.

The medical development, they said, was the result of cooperation among Rabin Medical Center cardiologists, the GenVec company and the Johnson & Johnson company. A 68-year-old patient suffering from severe angina pectoris (chest pains from exertion) who previously underwent two unsuccessful open-heart operations and was not helped by medications received an injection of a gene aimed at creating new blood vessels.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satell...cle/Printer&cid=1113272269334&p=1006953080053

 

[Mary]

Let's hope that it's successful!
Mary

 

[tobagotwo]

I am reminded of one procedure where they put many punctures into the heart, and the heart was somehow able to gain blood directly from them. I seem to recall it was doen with a laser catheter. I wonder what happened to that procedure.

Best wishes,

 

[PapaHappyStar]

Thats pretty cool!

I think thats the future of surgery -- rejuvention of worn or damaged body parts using biological robots, artificial viruses, molecular motors i.e. machinery at the cellular scale -- they need a lot more control over the function of these machines to do valve repairs for e.g., but a lot of fundamental research in the fields of biology, physics and engineering is converging to make this sort of technology possible

 

[RCB]

I am reminded of one procedure where they put many punctures into the heart, and the heart was somehow able to gain blood directly from them. I seem to recall it was doen with a laser catheter. I wonder what happened to that procedure.

Best wishes,

The procedure was called TMR and was a big deal about the mid-'90s. What it attempted to to was to revascularize the heart by burning little holes in the muscle from inside the heart with a laser on the end of a catheter. It seemed to work for a while, but after several years the hole healed shut and
I think they gave up on the idea. Too bad- it was just to good to be true.

 

[RCB]

The future?

The future?

Thats pretty cool!

I think thats the future of surgery -- rejuvention of worn or damaged body parts using biological robots, artificial viruses, molecular motors i.e. machinery at the cellular scale -- they need a lot more control over the function of these machines to do valve repairs for e.g., but a lot of fundamental research in the fields of biology, physics and engineering is converging to make this sort of technology possible

I also think these ideas are pretty cool! I was going to post this message in "The great valve debate" but I might as well do it here. I would think that the future of curative medicine is in genomics. If we can learn what are the biological modalities by which genes decide on how, when and what they will do, then we will be able to cause the body to actually regenerate itself. Think that is crazy? I ask why not. Salamanders can grow
a new tail, all of life's speices have the ability to grow their heart valves from nothing and then the heart start to beat- it is called the miracle of life. As soon as we can unlock the process, we shall be able to regenerate our own valves in are own bodies by merely turning on the right genenic switch with some combination of wave lenghts from the electromagnetic spectrum. Just
like "Bones" did in Star Trek. I'll leave the solution of that to our grandchildren.