Background: Conflicting results existed now on the clinical utility of intracoronary bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) transfer for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This study sought to analyze the efficacy and safety of autologous BMSC transfer in patients with AMI by performing a meta-analysis based on published randomised controlled trials.
Methods: A systematic literature search of PubMed, MEDLINE, BIOSIS, EMBASE, and Cochrane EBM databases during the period of 1990-2007 was made, objective being the randomised controlled trials in patients with AMI who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and received intracoronary BMSC transfer, and were followed up for at least 3 months.
Results: A total of 6 trials with 525 patients were available for analysis. The pooled statistics showed the mean increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) from baseline was 7.05% in BMSC group (p=0.01), whereas only 2.46% in control group (p=0.02), and the effect on the absolute change in LVEF was an increase of 4.77% compared with the control (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42% to 8.12%; p=0.005). The similar effect on left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic dimensions was demonstrated in inter-group comparison (standardized mean difference [SMD]=-0.15, 95%CI -0.50 to 0.20; p=0.41). The incidence of major adverse cardiac events was also similar in two groups but in favor of BMSC group (relative risk [RR]=0.85, 95%CI, 0.61 to 1.19; p=0.34).
Conclusions: Post PCI BMSC transplantation in patients with AMI significantly increases LVEF but has no effects on LV remodeling, and there is not an incremental effect on the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events in the observed period.