ABSTRACT
Introduction Ischemic heart disease is the major cause of death in adults in most developed and many developing countries, and is now the commonest cause of death worldwide. Effective treatments of coronary artery disease involve the percutaneous revascularization techniques of balloon angioplasty and stenting or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The long-term success of both of these approaches is limited by the development over time of native vessel restenosis and graft occlusions. In addition, despite continued advances in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease, there are still many patients who are not candidates for conventional treatments. Therapeutic angiogenesis is a strategy designed to restore blood supply to the myocardium by the administration of growth factors to augment native angiogenesis.
