Arizona Heart Institute pioneers research that may offer new hope to heart failure patients

Nationally, over 3,000 people are waiting for a heart transplant – and a new lease on life. Sadly, only half of those will receive a transplant. Now, pioneering research at Arizona Heart Institute (AHI) is paving the way for how to treat congestive heart failure (CHF) patients.

Called MyoCell® Muscle Stem Cell Therapy, the unique transplant procedure actually uses skeletal muscle stem cells (myoblasts) from the patient’s own body that are injected into the heart. This may create new functioning heart muscle.

Arizona Heart Institute has extensive knowledge in this area, having already completed two myoblast transplantation research studies in patients suffering from congestive heart failure (CHF), the first in 2002 involving the direct injection of myoblast cells into the heart during open heart surgery, and in 2004, the nation’s first delivery of myoblast cells using a minimally invasive, catheter-based approach.

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