Recent advance in stem cell therapy to restore the cardiac function has a great promise for patients with congestive heart failure after myocardial infarction in adult population.
Objective: Whether pediatric patients would be feasible and benefit from this bone marrow-derived progenitor cells treatment modality is needed to clarify.
Method: After standard therapy for congestive heart failure for years, we treated 3 consecutive children (2 girls) with dilated cardiomyopathy (age 10, 18 and 13 years) by intracoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells. The progenitor cell suspension was injected via a transcoronary catheter into dominant coronary without any complication.
Result: Three month after stem cell therapy, the patients’ cardiac function assessed by both cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) and echocardiogram has been improved compare to the baseline. The MRI showed left ventricular ejection fraction of 35, 12, and 31 % versus the baseline of 19, 5, and 16 %. The patient’s functional class (NYHC) and well being was also improved.
Conclusion: This is the first pediatric experience of successful transcoronary injection of the bone marrow-derived progenitor cell for children with impaired cardiac function. The initial result seems to be effective under clinical condition. The procedure is considered safe and feasible in pediatric population