Purdue News
Purdue News
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Dear Journalist: When it comes to heart muscle, patients may soon find that they are their own best donorA handful of U.S. physicians are beginning to use a new technique -- called cardiomyoplasty -- to treat patients with congestive heart failure. Instead of gambling with a transplant or artificial heart, the physicians are using some of the patient's own muscle -- taken from the back -- to wrap around the heart. The muscle is then trained over a period of six to eight weeks to contract simultaneously with the heart's contractions to strengthen or assist the failing pumping chambers. This summer the Food and Drug Administration approved five U.S. medical centers to perform a total of 5O operations using the technique. Earlier, human trials in Pittsburgh were successful. Updates on this procedure, and other related work, will be presented during Purdue University's second international Conference on Cardiac Assistance with Skeletal Muscle, Sept. 30 - Oct. 1 on Purdue's West Lafayette, Ind., campus. The scientists have agreed to open their meetings to the media, and you or your representative are invited to attend. If you cannot attend, please feel free to contact any of the researchers or physicians listed on the enclosed background sheet. If you have any questions about the conference, or would like to receive more information, please call me at 317-494-2081. Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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