Clinical Response of 277 Patients with Spinal Cord Injury to Stem Cell Therapy in Iraq

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Spinal cord injury is a common neurological problem secondary to car accidents, war injuries and other causes, it may lead to varying degrees of neurological disablement, and apart from physiotherapy there is no available treatment to regain neurological function loss. Our aim is to find a new method using autologous hematopoietic stem cells to gain some of the neurologic functions lost after spinal cord injury. METHODS AND RESULTS: 277 patients suffering from spinal cord injury were submitted to an intrathecally treatment with peripheral stem cells. The cells were harvested from the peripheral blood after a treatment with G-CSF and then concentrated to 4~6 ml. 43% of the patients improved; ASIA score shifted from A to B in 88 and from A to C in 32. The best results were achieved in patients treated within one year from the injury. CONCLUSIONS: Since mesenchymal cells increase in the peripheral blood after G-CSF stimulation, a peripheral blood harvest seems easier and cheaper than mesenchymal cell cultivation prior to injection. It seems reasonable treatment for spinal cord injury.

First report on bone marrow transplantation from Iraq

The Iraqi bone marrow transplantation center is located in the medical city complex in Baghdad, was established in November 2002 and performed the first case of mini-allotransplantation for acute myeloid leukemia on January 2003.The aim of this paper is to report the first cases of bone marrow transplantation in Iraq