Mild shock waves may be able to regenerate heart muscle tissue in patients after bypass surgery, research suggests.
63 people in Austria participated in the research.
Those who underwent the new treatment could walk longer and their hearts could pump more blood.
"For the first time, we see heart muscle being regenerated in a clinical setting, which could help millions of people," said Professor Johannes Holfeld from the Medical University of Innsbruck.
Larger trials of the device, which the researchers have dubbed a "space hair dryer," are now planned to see if it produces the same results in a larger group of patients.
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Coronary artery blockage
Every year, 18 million people in the world die from heart disease or other cardiovascular complications, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Among the risk factors are high blood pressure and unhealthy diet, as well as smoking and alcohol consumption.
There is no cure for the world's leading cause of death.
Medicines and other therapies can help keep the disease under control and reduce the likelihood of a heart attack in the event of a sudden blockage of blood flow to an organ.
In severe cases, surgeons take the patient's own healthy blood vessel from the chest, leg or arm and place it in the area of the heart above and below the blocked artery to bypass the narrowed area of the coronary artery and provide a new path for blood flow to the heart muscle.
This procedure is known as cardiac bypass grafting.
Such an operation can only preserve the heart's function, but not improve it.
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Researchers in Austria are trying to restore damaged muscle tissue by applying gentle sound waves shortly after bypass surgery.
The procedure, which lasts about 10 minutes, is designed to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels around the damaged area or scar on the heart muscle resulting from a heart attack.
Similar "shock wave" therapy is already being used to treat other conditions such as tendon and ligament injuries and erectile dysfunction.
Higher power waves or pulses are also used for lithotripsy, a common medical method for breaking up kidney stones.
Half of the bypass patients who participated in the study, published in the Medical Journal of Cardiology European Heart Journal, was treated with sound waves under general anesthesia, while the others were given fake, placebo therapy.
One year after surgery, the amount of oxygen-rich blood pumped by the heart increased by:
- 11,3 percent in the group treated with shock waves
- 6,3 percent in the control group
Patients treated with shock waves were also able to walk longer without resting and reported better quality of life.
"This means that they can once again go out for a walk with their dog or go to the store every day," said Professor Holfeld.
"We expect that they will have a longer life expectancy and less need to go to hospital treatment in the future."
Cardiologist Sonja Babu-Narajan, assistant medical director of the British Heart Foundation, says there is "a lot of room for improvement" in the treatment of heart disease.
"What's interesting about this trial is that people who received cardiac shock wave therapy during surgery had better heart function and reduced symptoms a year later compared to those who didn't," she said.
"Larger and longer trials are now needed to investigate long-term effects."
The researchers expect European regulatory bodies to approve the device by the end of the year, and widespread use, outside of clinical trials, is planned for 2025.
The research was funded by Austrian ministries, the US National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Health and an independent company spun off from the Medical University of Innsbruck, which is partially owned by the researchers.
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