Background: Recent advances in stem cell therapy to restore cardiac function have great promise for patients with congestive heart failure after myocardial infarction in an adult population.
Objective: We examined the benefits of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells treatment modality for the pediatric patient.
Methods and results: We present our first case of transcoronary autologous stem cell transplantation in a 9-year-old girl with refractory congestive heart failure secondary to myocardial infarction 1 year after transcatheter revascularization. The child received daily injections of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for 3 days prior to the bone marrow aspiration. The bone marrow cells were isolated to constitute CD133+/CD34+ more than 90% of the total number. Subsequently, the progenitor cell suspension was injected via a transcoronary catheter without any complication. Three months after stem cell therapy, her cardiac function, assessed by both cardiac magnetic resonance and echocardiogram, has been improved with the left ventricular ejection fraction at 47% compared to the baseline of 30%.
Conclusion: This is the first reported pediatric case of successful transcoronary injection of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells for end-stage heart disease. The procedure is considered safe and feasible for the pediatric population.