Intrapulmonary Administration of Autologous Bone Marrow Derived Mononuclear Cells in Congenital Heart Disease Complicated by Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Case Report
Aris Lacis *
Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, University Children Hospital, Latvia.
Inguna Lubaua
Department of Pediatrics, Riga Stradins University, Latvia.
Andis Lacis
Department of Pediatric Surgery, Riga Stradins University, Latvia.
Maija Ratniece
Department of Clinical Radiology, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Latvia.
Andrejs Erglis
The Latvian Cardiology Centre, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Latvia.
Eriks Jakobsons
Cell Transplantation Centre, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Latvia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating, progressive disease with increasingly debilitating symptoms that leads to right heart failure and ultimately death if untreated.
We suggest that intrapulmonary delivery of autologous bone marrow derived mononuclear cells (BMMC-s) could be beneficial for patients with severe PAH.
We report on a patient with congenital heart disease (CHD) complicated with severe PAH, who received intrapulmonary autologous BMMC transplantation. For the examination of the results we used scintigraphy during the periods of 6, 14 and 27 months after cell transplantation and documented clinical and radiographical alleviation of PAH sypmtoms.
The obtained results suggest that intrapulmonary BMMC transplantation could serve as a new therapeutic option or supplemental therapy for deteriorating PAH, particularly in cases, when conventional therapeutic strategies have failed to provide the control of the disease.
Keywords: Pulmonary arterial hypertension, stem cells, intrapulmonary administration, children.