A group of Toronto doctors is in the midst of testing an experimental procedure that uses a synthetic enzyme to open blocked arteries.
The enzyme is called Collagenase and it has been designed to be injected into the plaque that forms on arteries.
The target patients are people who have such hard plaque in their arteries that doctors can't open them with angioplasty.
Over a 24-hour period, the enzyme softens up the plaque. That then allows a cardiologist to penetrate the artery with a small guide-wire and inserting a stent to re-open the artery and restore blood flow.
Dr. Bradley Strauss, the doctor who invented the enzyme, said patients in this group need better options for treatment.
"These are very difficult cases that doctors are not doing, are not trying and when they try, they fail," Strauss, an interventional cardiologist at the Schulich Heart Centre, told CTV News. "There's a great need to try and make these patients better."
About 20 per cent of the patients in this group have fully "occluded," or blocked, arteries and few options to help them.
Kris Bogatek, 53, is one of these people. One of his arteries became totally blocked, causing Bogatek crushing chest pain when he walked or went up stairs.
Angioplasty attempts haven't worked and that left Bogatek with two options: live with the pain or undergo open-heart surgery.
"I don't want to be cut," Bogatek told CTV News in a recent interview.
Bogatek recently became one of the first 18 people to have doctors use Collagenase to treat his condition.
After being injected with the enzyme, doctors were able to open up Bogatek's artery well beyond the point it was at before. A few days after his operation, Bogatek said he was feeling better and had less trouble walking up stairs.
His results are part of an encouraging start to a technique that doctors say is promising, but still in early development.
"We've seen that it's been safe, but we certainly are in the early stages of delivering this therapy," said Dr. Sam Radhakrishnan, of Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
The doctors say they've been able to open the blockage and restore blood flow to the heart for 80 per cent of the patients they've treated so far.
Although not all patients with these blocked arteries need to have angioplasty to open up the artery, those who experience common symptoms, like chest pain and difficulty breathing, can benefit greatly from it.
With a report from CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
