In an effort to better manage patients with life-threatening irregular heartbeats who have exhausted all other treatment options, doctors are irradiating the heart.
Despite the fact that it is highly experimental, initial research reveals that it may reprogram misfiring cardiac cells to regulate heartbeats more like younger, healthier cells.
Dr. Stacey Rentschler of Washington University in St. Louis said, “It may actually rejuvenate diseased tissue, which is very exciting.”
The irregular heartbeat known as ventricular tachycardia is a leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest, accounting for approximately 300,000 annual fatalities in the United States. Radiation therapy is a radical approach; oncologists are trained to avoid irradiating the heart out of concern for collateral harm.
Now, scientists are about to launch the first rigorous study to determine if a fast, one-time dose to combat this irregular heartbeat works well enough — and is safe enough — for additional patients like Jeff Backus, who relapsed after receiving standard treatment.
The Louisville man had already undertaken a lengthy invasive procedure and had a defibrillator implanted to maintain his heart beating normally. This winter, Backus fainted twice within a month and awoke feeling as if he had been prodded in the thorax. The defibrillator had to shock his heart back into rhythm in order to save him.
