What Researchers Did
Doctors treated a 70-year-old man with severe chronic heart failure using hyperbaric oxygen therapy and erythropoietin injections, then measured his heart function before and after with a specialized imaging scan called G-SPECT.
What They Found
This case report describes changes in heart function measurements taken before and four months after combined hyperbaric oxygen and erythropoietin treatment in a single patient. Before treatment, the patient's left ventricular ejection fraction (a measure of the heart's pumping strength) was 15 percent, with severely abnormal wall motion and thickening in all segments; left ventricle end-diastolic volume was 393 mL (normal under 142 mL) and end-systolic volume was 334 mL (normal under 65 mL). Four months after treatment, ejection fraction was 25 percent, wall motion had normalized in the anterior and lateral areas and proximal septum, end-diastolic volume was 390 mL, and end-systolic volume was 289 ml. The hyperbaric oxygen protocol involved 15 total treatments in a monoplace chamber, alongside erythropoietin given by deep subcutaneous injection every second day, increasing from 2000 IU up to a total of 16000 IU.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This is a single case report involving one patient with no comparison group, so the observed changes cannot be attributed specifically to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, to erythropoietin, or to their combination, and the findings may not apply to other patients.