The safety of autologous intracoronary stem cell injections in a porcine model of chronic myocardial ischemia.

Background: Intracoronary mononuclear cell therapy may produce angiogenesis in chronic myocardial ischemia. Potential complications include periprocedural infarction secondary to: reduced coronary blood flow; hyperviscosity from the cell preparation; or microvascular dysfunction. To date, no studies to evaluate these potential complications have been reported.