Background: Intracoronary infusion of autologous bone marrow cells (CTX) has been shown to improve myocardial function in post infarct patients and in patients with chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy. Long term results of CTX are unknown.
Methods and results: In this small pilot study, eleven patients with chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy and ejection fraction (EF) of 19 +/- 1% were treated with CTX and followed for 7 years. Four patients died during follow-up, all because of progressive heart failure. All patients received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) during the course of the study but only 1 patients developed ventricular tachycardia after CTX. One patient received resynchronization therapy. The overall clinical benefit of CTX was modest (NYHA 3.0 +/- 0.1 pre and 2.5 +/- 0.2 post CTX, p= 0.06). CTX was not associated with reverse remodeling. However, left ventricular EF (19 +/- 1% pre and 18 +/- 6% post) and left ventricular end-diastolic volumes (289 +/- 71 ml pre and 294 +/- 123 ml post) remained remarkably stable over 7-year follow-up in the survivors of this very sick population.
Conclusions: During 7-year follow-up, CTX was associated with stabilization of EF and ventricular volumes but without significant clinical benefit or evidence of reverse remodeling.