What is it about?
After opening the coronary artery that causes a heart attack, red blood cells cannot flow through many capillaries of the heart because of swelling and other causes. The low oxygen level in these capillaries (hypoxia) makes the problem even worse, so that red cell flow is blocked further. Plasma can still work its way through many capillaries, but very high levels of oxygen are necessary to dissolve enough oxygen. A new catheter method for local 1 hour post stenting delivery of very high levels of oxygen in blood has been used in patients with large attacks. The size of the heart attack in these patients is significantly reduced because the capillaries are opened to the flow of red cells.
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Why is it important?
A new method, termed SuperSaturated Oxygen (based on a new saline solution of oxygen called "Aqueous Oxygen" - AO), is a simple and safe catheter procedure for delivery of hyperbarically dissolved oxygen to the heart after opening a blocked coronary artery with a stent. The capillary swelling is reduced, so that red cells can then start flowing again. As a result, the size of the heart attack is reduced and healing is improved. No other treatment for treating patients with large heart attacks, beyond opening the coronary artery, has been found to reduce the size of the heart attack.
Perspectives
For many years, scientists and physicians have assumed that opening a blocked coronary artery in patients with a heart attack was a "double-edged sword". Although opening the artery is a great treatment, it has been thought that the reperfusion itself caused additional injury to the heart. However, most researchers have not studied the role of microscopically patchy regions of poor red cell flow contributing to a cycle of low oxygen and further swelling/damage to the capillaries. Clinical imaging or even detection is usually not possible, and until the new method, there was no way to deliver the high oxygen levels to the heart without a hyperbaric chamber.
Dr James Richard Spears
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reperfusion Microvascular Ischemia After Prolonged Coronary Occlusion: Implications And Treatment With Local Supersaturated Oxygen Delivery, Hypoxia, October 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.2147/hp.s217955.
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