Source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Data Trends & Maps Web site. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Atlanta, GA, 2010. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/.

PCI

More than 1.2 million procedures are performed in the United States each year. Although common, this procedure involves significant risk of ischemia-reperfusion injury.

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About one million people will suffer acute heart attacks (MI) in the US this year. Thrombolytic drugs, or "clot busters" such as tPA have a clear role in heart attack treatment. However, they do not protect the heart from reperfusion injury following clot removal. Surgery to bypass the blockage in a coronary artery (an artery of the heart) is now a common procedure. About 500,000 of these Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgeries are performed in the US each year.

Moreover, about 700,000 more patients each year undergo a surgical procedure to unblock clogged coronary arteries by means of a catheter-based balloon inflation and the placement of a stent (percutaneous coronary intervention or PCI). Unfortunately, many of these patients suffer significant ischemia-reperfusion injury, including new heart damage, cardiac arrhythmia, and stroke associated with the surgery. Similar complications may occur with other cardiac surgeries.

Currently, there is no approved drug available to protect against such ischemia-reperfusion injury. This presents a significant opportunity to address a major unmet medical need.