Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
A New Lease on Life
In 2006 Blevins met Dr. Stegmann at a one-year reunion of the Cincinnati trial participants. "Twenty patients were there," says Blevins. "Some had come from as far away as Texas to get this treatment -- and we were all so excited that our lives had been saved." The researchers report no deaths or side effects in the trial, which ended in March 2006.One of Dr. Wagoner's patients, a middle-aged woman, said that though she initially improved, some of her symptoms returned. But so far both Blevins and Keller have stayed well. "Now I help my mom out a lot when, before, she had to take care of me," says Keller. "I live on my own, on a 73-acre farm, with two dogs and three cats. I work in the garden, growing all my favorite flowers, which I couldn't do before."
And Keller herself has blossomed. "I used to be very depressed," she says, "but these days I keep finding things that make me smile. In the summer, I bought a bicycle and was able to ride for about a mile. It was so cool -- it was the first time I'd been able to do that in 15 years. Now I bike three or four times a week."
Last August, Keller celebrated a day doctors had predicted she'd never reach: her 40th birthday. Some 60 friends and relatives gathered around her parents' swimming pool for the festivities. "It was such a wonderful day," she says. "People were teasing me about being over the hill. That was funny because I feel so much younger than I did before. There was a big table covered with gifts. My parents brought out the most beautiful birthday cake. I blew out all the candles and wasn't out of breath at all."
Keller closed her eyes and made a wish: "that I'd live long enough to have a lot more birthdays!"
Heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of Americans. Each year nearly 3.4 million people undergo angioplasty, bypass and cardiac catheterization, at a cost of almost $4.5 billion. Angiogenesis treatment could reduce the need for such procedures -- maybe even heart transplants—and their costs.
FGF-1 doesn't cure heart disease, and it has no effect on the rest of the heart or the existing blood vessels, explains Thomas Stegmann, MD, co-founder and chief medical officer of CardioVascular BioTherapeutics in Las Vegas, the company that developed the technology. So some people may eventually need another injection. In the future, this may be used for early heart disease to prevent a heart attack. And so far in his studies, Dr. Stegmann says, the treatment has shown no side effects.
A second, larger angiogenesis study, using an improved technique, is expected to begin this year. Participants won't have to undergo surgery. Instead, doctors will thread a needle-tipped catheter through a vessel in the leg up to the left chamber of the heart. Using X-ray guidance to determine the best spot for the shot, they'll inject the heart from the inside. The treatment requires only a simple outpatient procedure, with minimal recovery time. If futuretrials are successful, FGF-1 could be under consideration by the FDA in 2009 or 2010 for approval, Dr. Stegmann predicts.
FGF-1 is also being tested in U.S. studies for other potential benefits, such as faster wound healing in diabetics and improvement of peripheral artery disease (PAD). The eight million Americans with PAD have clogged leg vessels, putting them at risk for heart attack, stroke, amputation and impaired walking. For more information about FGF-1, go to cvbt.com.
8 Warming Soup Recipes
Video: Expired Foods in Your Supermarket
4 Ways to Strengthen Your Immune System
Joke: The burial service for the elderly woman climaxed with…
Advertisement 
