Kansas Coalition
for Lifesaving Cures
PO Box 394
Topeka KS 66601-0394
Toll-free: 800-821-2658
Email: info@kansascures.com
Heart Disease, Stroke and Other Cardiovascular Diseases
Medical Background
There are many different diseases that affect the heart and other parts of the cardiovascular system, including:
- Coronary artery disease (CAD)
- Heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)
- Stroke
- Heart valve disease
- Congenital heart disease
- Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy)
- Pericardial disease
- Aorta disease and Marfan syndrome
- Vascular disease (blood vessel disease)
Coronary artery disease occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (coronary arteries) become hardened and narrowed due to the buildup of plaque on the inner lining of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Among other things, this can cause angina, a heart attack or heart failure.
Traumatic cardiovascular conditions such as a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction), damage portions of the heart and can be fatal. People who survive a heart attack often face a diminished quality of life and long-term health problems.
Stroke is caused by the blockage or rupture of blood vessels that supply the brain, causing a sudden loss of oxygen to the victim’s brain cells. Brain cells within the vicinity of the broken vessel are damaged within minutes and begin to die within hours. Stroke victims often experience a loss of body function and, depending upon the brain region affected, can suffer partial paralysis and sensory defects.
Other cardiovascular diseases also create serious short and long-term problems for their victims.
Although great progress has been made in developing surgical
and drug treatments for many heart and cardiovascular conditions,
they are still the top causes of disease and death in our country.
Human and Social Costs
About 61 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) have some form of cardiovascular disease. In Kansas, heart disease is the leading cause of death, responsible for 210 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2003.
About 950,000 Americans die of some type of cardiovascular disease each year, accounting for nearly one in four deaths in our country – or one death every 33 seconds. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of premature, permanent disability among working adults. Almost 6 million hospitalizations each year are due to cardiovascular disease.
The American Heart Association estimates that 3.5% of the U.S. population age 20 and over has had a heart attack. Based on current population figures, this would amount to over 7 million people. The American Heart Association estimates that 2% of the U.S. population, or 5.9 million people, have suffered a stroke.
Although heart disease and stroke are often thought to primarily affect men and older people, they are also major killers of women and people in the prime of life. Looking at specific age groups, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer for people ages 65 and older, number two for ages 0-14 and 25-64, and number four for ages 15-24.
The number of cardiovascular disease patients and the economic effects of cardiovascular disease on the U.S. health care system are increasing as our population ages. In 2003, the cost of heart disease and stroke was projected to be about $351 billion, including $209 billion for health care expenditures and $142 billion for lost productivity from death and disability.
Based on federal and state data, it is estimated that there are currently over 85,000 heart attack patients in Kansas and that this number will grow to more than 125,000 by 2030, an increase of 47%. The study estimated that heart attacks will cost Kansans about one billion dollars in 2005 – and tens of billions of dollars over the next 25 years.
Using the same statistical data, it is estimated that there are currently over 45,000 stroke patients in Kansas and that this number will grow to more than 55,000 by 2030, an increase of 22%. It is estimated that strokes will cost Kansans hundreds of millions of dollars million in 2005 – and tens of billions of dollars over the next 25 years.
The Potential for Stem Cell Cures
Recent research indicates that stem cells could play an important role in repairing the cell and tissue damage caused by heart and cardiovascular diseases, and could someday lead to breakthrough cures and therapies. For example, scientific studies indicate that stem cells can transform into the heart cells damaged by cardiovascular disease (e.g. heart muscle or valve cells). Thus, stem cell transplants could be used to regenerate damaged heart tissue and help improve heart function.
More than 50 years of research on adult stem cells, taken from adult tissues, has produced such lifesaving treatments as bone marrow transplants for leukemia patients. And, adult stem cells are likely to provide additional cures for some diseases in the years ahead.
However, the new frontier in stem cell research involves early, or “embryonic,” stem cells (ES cells). Unlike adult stem cells, ES cells have the potential to turn into and regenerate any type of cell or tissue in the human body. As a result, ES cells could provide cures for many currently incurable or common diseases and injuries that cannot be cured with adult stem cells, or more effective treatments than adult stem cells may provide.
There are two basic sources of ES cells for such potential therapies. One source is the leftover embryos at fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded and destroyed. ES cells can also be produced with Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), a process that uses a patient’s own cells and an unfertilized human egg to make ES cells. SCNT has the added advantage of producing ES cells that will automatically match the patient’s genetic makeup. As a result, SCNT avoids the need to find a genetically matching donor and the problem of immune system rejection, two limitations associated with donated adult and ES cells.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have used ES cell transplants to repair congenital heart defects in mice. Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Institute in New York recently reported that heart muscle cells derived by SCNT were successfully transplanted into the hearts of animals, and that the cells divided and formed a mechanically meaningful architecture following heart attack. They also observed some restoration of normal heart function, a remarkable finding given that these animals received transplants that were 10 times smaller than comparable adult stem cell transplants. Such animal studies could lead to the application of similar ES cell therapies for humans.
Recent studies indicate that ES cell transplants could also be used in the future to help repair cell damage caused by stroke or, since certain types of stem cells have been shown to migrate to brain regions inflamed by stroke, they could be used to “transport” anti-inflammatory medicines used after stroke injury directly to the damaged area.
SCNT also has the potential to provide a way to use a patient’s own cells to regenerate blood vessels and repair injured organs, such as hearts, with cells that will be accepted by the patient’s body. This could provide a vitally-needed alternative to transplants of donated tissues and organs, which are almost always in short supply, limited by the need to find a donor genetic match, and subject to immune rejection problems.
In addition, SCNT has given medical researchers a method of growing cells that have the defects associated with a disease in a laboratory setting. This use of SCNT provides new ways to study how some cardiovascular diseases progress at the cellular level and to test the effectiveness of new drugs or other treatments that may cure or slow the progress of those diseases.
The consensus of the medical and patient community is that all types of stem cell research should be pursued in the effort to find cures for diseases and injuries – including heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases – and that ES cells can play an important role in this effort.
That’s why ES cell research is strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of medical researchers; medical organizations, like the American Medical Association, American Society of Hematology and National Medical Association; by leading research, like the Stowers Institute for Medical Research; and by dozens of disease and patient advocacy groups.
LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION:
Kansas Department of Health and Environment
- http://www.kdheks.gov/hci/as03/AS2003.HTML
Kaiser Family Foundation Kansas State Health Facts
- http://www.statehealthfacts.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi
“Can Stem Cells Repair a Damaged Heart?”
The National Institutes of Health
- http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter9.asp
American Society of Hematology statement supporting SCNT, due to it's potential to benefit victims of heart attack and stroke.
- http://www.hematology.org/news/press/press_042602.cfm
U.S. Census Bureau
- http://factfinder.census.gov
State of Kansas, Division of the Budget
- http://da.state.ks.us/budget/ecodemo.htm
“Researchers Report First Evidence That Nuclear Transplantation Can Eliminate Tissue Rejection: Heart ‘Patches’ and Functioning Kidney Units Cloned in Cows.”
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.
- http://www.advancedcell.com/2002-06-02.htm
“Regeneration of the infarcted heart with stem cells derived by nuclear transplantation.”
Advanced Cell Technology, Worcester, Mass
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd
=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14764454&dopt=Abstract
“Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Shows Benefits in Rebuilding Damaged Heart.”
News-Medical.Net
- http://www.news-medical.net/?id=4169
“Stem Cells and Immune Rejection.”
The International Society for Stem Cell Research
- http://www.isscr.org/public/rejection.htm
“Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT).”
The International Society for Stem Cell Research
- http://www.isscr.org/public/therapeutic.htm
Generating Blood from Embryonic Stem Cells
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
- http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/996/1/122
“Researchers Use Therapeutic Cloning to Create Functional Tissue in Cows.”
Children’s Hospital Boston (a Harvard University affiliate)
- http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/pressreleases/ch/0602therapeuticcloning.html
Movie clip of beating heart muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
The International Society for Stem Cell Research
- http://www.isscr.org/public/movies.htm
“Embryonic Stem Cells Correct Congenital Heart Defect in Mouse Embryos.”
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/52225.cfm
“Genetic and Cellular Therapies for Cerebral Infarction.”
O Szentirmai & BS Carter Neurosurgery (2004) 55: 283-6.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15271234&dopt=Abstract