A type of stem cell therapy may offer hope to heart attack survivors who face the prospect of continued heart damage, new research shows.When infused with progenitor bone marrow cells, these patients showed almost double the improvement in the heart’s ability to pump blood as did patients who were given a placebo.The benefit was most pronounced in patients who had had large heart attacks with greater damage to the heart muscle, according to the study, which tracked people who were relatively low-risk heart patients.There are reasons to be both excited and cautious about the findings, experts said."It’s a very exciting first study, but there are still some things that need to be defined by a greater number of patients,” Dr. Timothy Gardner, medical director for the Center for Heart and Vascular Health at Christiana Care Health Services in Wilmington, Del., said at a news conference Sunday at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Dallas.
