Cardiac revascularization: state of the art and perspectives

Abstract

Cardiac ischemia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in a worldwide epidemic. The progressive understanding of the mechanisms driving new blood vessel formation has led to numerous attempts to revascularize the ischemic heart in animal models and in humans. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of the art and discuss the major obstacles that have so far limited the clinical success of cardiac revascularization.

Keywords

• heart
• revascularization
• angiogenesis
• arteriogenesis
• gene therapy
• cell therapy