Aspects of Percutaneous Cellular Cardiomyoplasty

Abstract

The significant advances achieved over the past decade in the field of percutaneous coronary intervention have significantly increased our ability to use catheter-based techniques to modify cardiac physiology. The ongoing studies demonstrating the significant potential of cell-based therapy for the prevention and treatment of chronic heart failure has led to the development of multiple catheter-based systems for the delivery of cells to the injured myocardium. Advances have also been made in catheter-based systems that exploit electomechanical properties of the heart in order to direct the interventionalist as to the best areas in which to inject cells. In this chapter we will review the different catheter systems currently available or under development as well as discuss how different features of each may be optimal in the different settings of acute myocardial infarction and chronic heart failure.