In a new study, researchers have found a key cause of micro blood vessels constricting during surgery to reopen a blocked artery and a way to block the mechanism behind it.
The research was conducted by a team from the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford.
Heart disease is the main cause of death throughout the Western World.
One of the most common ways in which that manifests is through heart attacks, which occurs when one of the heart’s arteries is blocked.
During a heart attack, part of the heart starts to die, which causes pain in the chest and can be life-threatening.
Large heart attacks are treated with an emergency procedure to reopen the blocked artery using a balloon and metal tube called a stent.
Previous research has shown during the emergency procedure used to reopen the blocked artery causing a heart attack, smaller “micro” blood vessels beyond the stent can remain constricted, which can cause big damage.
But the cause of these micro-vessels being very tightly constricted has so far been unclear.
In the new study, the team studied patients who had experienced large heart attacks.
Through state of the art scans at 48 hours and 6 months after a heart attack, the researchers were able to see how much damage had been done to the heart.
They also found a key cause behind this constriction and found a possible way to block the mechanism behind it.
They showed that as part of a stress response to a heart attack, a neurotransmitter called Neuropeptide-Y (NPY) is released which causes micro-vessels in the heart to constrict.
Patients with high NPY levels tend to go on to experience more heart damage.
The team says if they can develop a drug used in humans that can block that receptor, then this may be a really good new treatment to give to heart attack patients.
The lead author of the study is Associate Professor Neil Herring.
The study is published in the European Heart Journal.
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