Late-breaking data presented at TCT 2007, the scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), show that an infusion of blood that is “supersaturated” with oxygen (SSO2) can reduce the amount of damaged heart muscle following a heart attack.
Despite successful reperfusion – or restoration of blood flow to the heart with angioplasty following a heart attack – there is often an area of infarction, or damaged heart muscle caused by the death of cells due to the interruption of oxygen carrying blood.
In the AMIHOT II trial, investigators led by Gregg W. Stone, MD, Chairman, Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center sought to determine the efficacy and safety of infusing SSO2 into the previously blocked artery after an angioplasty procedure.
“Among high-risk patients with acute anterior myocardial infarction (heart attack) undergoing successful angioplasty within 6 hours of symptom onset, infusion of SSO2 into the myocardial infarct territory results in a significant reduction in the size of the 'infarct zone,’ the amount of damaged heart tissue,” Stone said.
The AMIHOT II trial was conducted with 304 patients randomized at 20 sites in four countries.
Data from the study show that the size of the “infarct zone” was 6.5 percent lower in the patients treated with SSO2 than in control patients who did not receive the therapy.
In addition, at 30 days after the treatment, the rates of Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE) were statistically equivalent between the two groups.-Cardiovascular Research Foundation
