Indo-American Doctor Performs Life-Saving Heart Operation Using New Procedure

WASHINGTON – In a first,an NRI doctor in the US has performeda unique “life-saving”heart procedure – that involvesinjecting the patient’s own stemcells into the organ – on Hollywoodactor Ernie Lively.Amit Patel from the Universityof Utah performed thehistoric procedure on Lively -‘Gossip girl’ actress Blake Lively’sfather – using new techniqueof retrograde gene therapy on ahuman heart to repair damagedmuscle and arteries.The 66-year-old actor hascredentials that include a longlist of TV and film appearances,including Passenger 57 and theSisterhood of the TravellingPants.He had suffered a massiveheart attack in 2003, whichleft him functioning on half ahealthy heart. As time marchedon, his ejection fraction – themeasurement of the percentageof blood leaving the heart eachtime it contracts – continued todecline.Lively connected with Patel,director of Clinical RegenerativeMedicine and Tissue Engineeringand an associate professorin the Division of CardiothoracicSurgery at the University ofUtah School of Medicine.Lively became a patient ofPatel’s in February, when Patelsaved Lively’s life after a complicationwith an angiogram leftthe actor with a severed aortaand problems with his coronaryarteries.This month, Lively got hiswish when he became the firstpatient in the world to undergoretrograde gene therapy at Universityof Utah Hospital, a novelprocedure designed to deliverstem cells to the heart to repairdamaged muscle and arteries inthe most minimally invasive waypossible. Patel started investigatingcell and gene-based therapiesfor the treatment of heart disease12 years ago, but only recentlyreceived FDA approval totry the therapy on Lively.The first successful procedurewas performed on Livelyon November 7.“It’s incredible. Imaginehaving a heart procedure thatcan potentially regenerate orrejuvenate your heart muscle– and it’s done as an outpatientprocedure,” said Patel.Patel uses a minimally invasivetechnique where he goesbackwards through a patient’smain cardiac vein, or coronarysinus, and insertsa catheter.He theninflates a balloonin orderto block bloodflow out of theheart so thata very highdose of genetherapy can beinfused directlyinto the heart.The uniquegene therapydoesn’t involveviruses (a rarityfor gene therapy,Patel notes) and is pure humanDNA infused into patients.The DNA, called SDF-1,is a naturally occurring substancein the body that becomesa homing signal for a patient’sbody to use its own stem cells togo to the site of an injury.Once the gene therapy isinjected, the genes act as “homingbeacons.” When the genesare put into patients with heartfailure, they marinate the entireheart and act like a look out, hesaid.“I woke up this morningand told my wife, ‘I haven’t feltthis good in years,” said Livelyafter returned home where he isrecovering.