Adenosine-heparin combo studied for angina

Treating chronic stable angina with an IV adenosine-heparin combination is showing successful early results in a study at the University of California at San Francisco. Researchers there, led by Hal Barron, MD, pursued an open-label, placebo-controlled study based on exercise-induced ischemia in patients with chronic stable angina to determine if repeated use of the drug combination would improve bouts of myocardial ischemia in those patients. Researchers believe the combo stimulates coronary angiogenesis or collateral circulation to relieve patient discomfort.

Based on stress testing and myocardial imaging, patients received a two-week daily infusion of 10,000u of heparin, followed by a six-minute infusion of either 140 mcg/kg/min of adenosine or placebo. Initial results showed that when compared with baseline, patients on the combination had a greater reduction of ischemic myocardium (31% vs. 23%), than the relatively small change (26% vs. 29%) in those on just heparin.