There might be good news for millions of Americans who suffer from heart failure: A trial using gene therapy appears to have boosted patients' cardiac function.
"This type of an intervention would be the ultimate method to reconstruct damaged heart tissue so that it can be mechanically functional again," explained one expert, Dr. Justine Lachmann. She directs the Congestive Heart Failure Program at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.