Restoration of left ventricular synchronous contraction after acute myocardial infarction by stem cell therapy: new insights into the therapeutic implication of stem cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of stem cell therapy on restoration of the left ventricular (LV) synchronous contraction in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).


METHODS
40 patients with AMI who underwent successful coronary revascularisation were randomly allocated to the cell infusion or the control group. Evaluations were performed with echocardiographic tissue synchronisation imaging to determine LV dyssynchrony and with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to estimate LV ejection fraction (LVEF) at baseline and at 6 months. To quantify the severity of systolic LV dyssynchrony, the standard deviations of time to peak systolic velocity of the 12 LV segments (Ts-SD) were calculated.


RESULTS
At 6 months, greater improvements of Ts-SD (DeltaTs-SD: -45.0 (40.2) vs 5.0 (39.9) ms, p<0.001) and LVEF (DeltaLVEF: 6.8% (9.1%) vs -0.2% (6.9%), p = 0.015) relative to the corresponding baseline values were observed in the cell infusion group than in the control group. By multivariate analysis, DeltaTs-SD and baseline LVEF emerged as the independent determinants of LVEF improvement and cell infusion, and baseline Ts-SD as the determinant of DeltaTs-SD improvement. Maximal exercise capacity measured by symptom-limited treadmill testing correlated well with Ts-SD but not with LVEF at 6 months of follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Stem cell therapy had a favourable effect on the restoration of LV synchronous contraction in patients with AMI.
Chang
S-A
SA
Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Center, National Research, Laboratory for Cardiovascular Stem Cell, Innovative Research Institute for Cell Therapy, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
H-K
HK
Lee
H-Y
HY
Choi
S-Y
SY
Koo
B-K
BK
Kim
Y-J
YJ
Sohn
D-W
DW
Oh
B-H
BH
Park
Y-B
YB
Choi
Y-S
YS
Kang
H-J
HJ
Kim
H-S
HS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods; D005080:Exercise Test; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D019650:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D036102:Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*