Stem cell therapies in Bangkok

Heart therapies

Some of the most encouraging reports in stem cell research come from doctors who show that injecting damaged hearts with stem cells can revive them.

Doctors in Bangkok are part of this cutting edge of therapy for diseased hearts.

Heart tissues that are starved of oxygen, either chronically or from a heart attack, are unable to pump blood efficiently, forcing the remaining muscle to try to compensate by pumping harder. Eventually, that stress leads to heart failure. Because the heart has a limited capacity to heal itself, the only option for these individuals was to have a transplant—until today’s stem cell therapy treatments that are available in only a few countries in the world.

In Bangkok, working with Amit Patel, director of the Center for Cardiac Cell Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh, who believes stem cells might help the heart by providing fresh mitochondria and allowing for stronger, synchronous contractions, senior surgeons at the Bangkok Heart Hospital have already helped several dozen people from around the world gain back health and a functioning life.

The procedure is still in trials in the US, but it is already in practice in Thailand and elsewhere. Patel in December 2005 treated Hawaiian singer and entertainer Don Ho at the Bangkok Heart Hospital. At 75, Ho was not a heart transplant candidate, but following the therapy has improved enough to perform on stage twice a week.

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