Results of a clinical trial published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions demonstrate that an infusion of blood that is “supersaturated” with oxygen (SS02) can reduce the amount of damaged heart muscle immediately following a life-threatening heart attack.
“The benefit of this therapy increased with the scope of the heart attack,” said Dr Gregg Stone, lead author and professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “The data show that heart muscle can be saved even after severe heart attack.” The AMIHOT-II study focused on patients having the most serious types of heart attacks – those with anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMIs) – and on patients treated within six hours. In the trial, the “supersaturated” oxygen was delivered via catheter directly to the area of the heart muscle affected by the heart attack. Data from the study showed that the median size of the “infarct zone” or the amount of damaged tissue, was 20% in the patients that received the “supersaturated” blood and 26.5% in the control group. In addition, at 30 days after the treatment – a key safety measure – the rates of major adverse cardiac events were not statistically different between the two groups.
