MGH researchers create heart treatment out of thin air

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have recently licensed a technology that makes nitric oxide out of the surrounding air, a development physicians are hoping will make the heart treatment more widely available.

Nitric oxide treatment has been used since the late 1990s to treat hypertension in blood vessels that supply the lungs. Not to be confused with anesthetic gas nitrous oxide, nitric oxide helps relax the muscles surrounding blood vessels, reducing blood pressure.

While the method has had a great impact in the treatment of persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns and other newborn lung diseases, it has been a costly and cumbersome treatment to give in an outpatient setting.

“Here at MGH, five days treatment of a newborn with PPHN costs around $14,000 – and current systems use gas delivered in heavy tanks, making ambulatory treatment impractical,” said Dr. Warren Zapol, director of the MGH Anesthesia Center for Critical Care Research and emeritus chief of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the hospital.

But in a report published by the journal Science Translational Medicine on July 1, MGH researchers detailed that they can produce nitric oxide from thin air with an electrical spark through a lightweight, portable system.

“This device could enable trials of nitric oxide to treat patients with chronic lung diseases and certain kinds of heart failure and would make nitric oxide therapy available in parts of the world that don’t have the resources that are currently required,” said Zapol, who is also senior author of the study.

Researchers said the technology was too new to be impactful when it was first developed, and the system at the time was too large for outpatient settings.

But technological advances have allowed Zapol and others to improve on the technology, and the growing therapeutic use of the gas means potential for broader uses.

Studies in animals have shown the device is effective, and clinical trials are underway.

“This advance has great potential for our patients,” said Dr. Richard Channick, director of the MGH Pulmonary Hypertension Program. “If proven safe and effective, electrically generated nitric oxide therapy will greatly enhance our ability to treat many forms of pulmonary hypertension.”
Source : bizjournals

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