At the press conference titled “Introduction of New Methods in Cardiovascular Disease Treatment” held in Ho Chi Minh City on May 5th, Dr. Eugene Sim, a Cardiologist from Parkway Healthcare Group in Singapore, announced that for patients with end-stage heart failure with no hope of recovery, Singapore is developing treatment methods involving stem cell transplantation and the use of mechanical heart support devices.
 |
Parkway – Singapore |
All stem cells used for transplantation in heart failure patients are derived from muscle or bone marrow. According to Dr. Sim, currently, 200 to 300 heart failure patients worldwide have received muscle-derived stem cell transplants, and 700 to 800 cases have received bone marrow stem cell transplants.
In Singapore alone, since 2005, doctors have applied this method to 8 cases of end-stage heart failure. Most patients undergoing stem cell transplantation are those suffering from myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease.
Currently, Singaporean doctors are researching methods to further refine stem cells to achieve even better treatment outcomes.
The cost of treating end-stage heart failure using stem cell transplantation ranges from 20,000 to 30,000 USD.
During the press conference, Cardiologist Consultant Lim Tai Tian from Parkway Healthcare emphasized that the more risk factors a person has, the exponentially higher their chances of developing cardiovascular diseases. This means that a person with one risk factor has a fourfold increase in the likelihood of developing the disease; if a person has two risk factors, that likelihood increases to eight times.
The risk factors include a family history of cardiovascular disease, especially if the disease occurred at a young age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, men over 40 years old, and women in the perimenopausal phase or over 50 years old.
Hương Cát
