The CDC says more than half a million Americans have their first heart attack every year. Right now, researchers are testing a therapy that could limit permanent damage to heart muscles. Patients get supersaturated oxygen therapy, in addition to angioplasty or stents. 

 

Tim France, 59, is reminiscing about a 500 mile hike he did with his son three years ago. He exercises, eats well, and doesn’t smoke. Then, one day on the golf course, he said, “As I was walking from the fifth to the sixth hole, you have to walk up a hill, and that’s when I felt a pain in my chest. Right in the middle of my chest, and it’s like, well, this is not good.” 

 

Tim was rushed into the care of John Harrington, M.D., a cardiologist at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California, who invited him to be part of the supersaturated oxygen therapy trial.

 

“We increase the oxygen content of the blood by five to seven times, and then that is infused back into the patient, directly into the major artery of the heart,” explained Dr. Harrington.

 

He said, in early phases of the trial, heart muscle damage went down by 26 percent.

 

Dr. Harrington said, “The sooner that you open the artery that has been interrupted blood flow, the less damage is done. I use the analogy of a house fire. The sooner you call the fire department, the sooner the fire is out, the less structural damage is done.”

 

Tim had MRIs at five and 30 days after the procedure. “I feel as well now as I did before the heart attack, and I’m thinking that part of it has to do with that study,” Tim said. 

 

He’s also psyched to help researchers improve outcomes for first-time heart attack patients like himself.  

Research into supersaturated oxygen therapy began in 2002. It’s now in Phase III clinical trial, the last phase before results and data are presented to the FDA. Doctors have treated 86 of the 100 patients they need for the trial. They expect to end the trial in two to three months.