MHIF Researchers Awarded $2 Million Grant to Investigate Innovative Heart Attack Treatment

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health awarded a nearly $2 million grant to Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation researchers to evaluate a technique called postconditioning for heart attack treatment.

 

Research demonstrates that the rapid return of blood to the heart after the opening of a clogged artery may cause damage to the heart muscle. Postconditioning works to slow down this flow, which may decrease a patient’s risk for heart muscle damage.

 

“This simple technique adds no cost to the procedure and appears to be very safe as demonstrated in our initial studies and the several small trials that have been performed throughout the world,” says Minneapolis Heart Institute® cardiologist, Jay H. Traverse, MD, who is leading the study.

 

Traverse and colleagues Timothy D. Henry, MD and John R. Lesser, MD, as well as researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Minnesota’s Cardiovascular Division and School of Pharmacy will look at the effectiveness of the technique immediately during hospitalization and then in three- and twelve-month intervals to evaluate its long-term benefits.