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By
Holly Ames/Medstar
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Published: Fri, September 07, 2007 - 3:37 pm
Last Updated: Fri, September 07, 2007 - 3:43 pm
September is PAD Awareness Month. PAD stands for peripheral artery disease. It's a serious problem that leads to 30 to 50 thousand amputations a year. Researchers are making progress in fighting PAD and are now using stem cells to keep patients on their feet. Delbert Shimer has hardening of the arteries in his legs so severe it's peripheral artery disease. "I have a lot of pain and burning and stuff in your feet and legs. It don't feel very good."
His blood vessels were so clogged, standard treatment was out of the question. His only option was the amputation of his legs. But first, he signed up for a unique stem cell study at Indiana University.
Dr. Michael Murphy is a vascular surgeon. "We're treating a certain subset of patients with PAD, that are not candidates for surgical bypass or angioplasty and have such severe vascular disease that they have pain at rest or they have gangrene and are at risk for losing their leg, amputation."
In the study, researchers harvest stem cells from the patient's own hip bone. Dr. Keith March explains, "The bone marrow is processed to provide stem cells that include stem cells that help to grow blood vessels and perhaps participate in actual forming of blood vessels."
Researchers inject the cells into the patient's affected leg muscles hoping to repair sick arteries and grow healthy, new ones.
Dr. March says, "We want to do multiple injections so that actually the muscle in many of its areas will be able to be addressed by the growth factors that these cells secrete."
Patients in the study have shown improved blood flow. "We've had about a 50% significant response rate, equivalent to what we would hope to obtain with angioplasty," says Murphy.
Delbert Shimer says, "It helped mine out, I'll say that. I'm doing a lot better and I don't have all that problem I did have and don't have that pain I did have." And so far, Delbert Shimer is still walking on his own two legs.
Eventually the researchers are hoping to use stem cells from the patient's own fat tissue, that can be retrieved through liposuction, and from umbilical cord blood so patients can avoid the painful bone marrow extraction.
FAST FACTS:
* Peripheral arterial disease affects 8 to 12 million Americans.
* The condition most commonly causes leg pain while walking.
* In serious cases, a blockage can severely impede blood flow in a limb and require an amputation.
* Doctors are testing the use of the patient's own stem cells to trigger the growth of new blood vessels in the affected limb
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The severe form of PAD is also known as critical limb ischemia. Information about the disease and its progress can be found on the Vascular Disease Foundation (VDF) web site, http://www.vdf.org. VDF is a non-profit which has all vascular disease specialties involved to bring credible information to the public. On our Web site is information about current clinical trials for vascular disease. If interested in learning more about this and other clinical trials on vascular diseaes, visit the site at http://www.vdf.org/clinical/.