Seventy-six-year-old Christina McDonald's biggest threat comes from something she can't see, only feel.
"It's something like a Charlie horse, where the muscles stiffen up," she said.
She has peripheral arterial disease - PAD. The arteries in her leg are clogged with plaque, putting her at risk for heart attack, stroke and amputation. The usual treatments are angioplasties or bypasses. But now, doctors using a patient's own stem cells to try and save her legs.
"We basically take stem cells from their hips to help grow blood vessels," said Dr. Randall Franz.
Doctors use a needle to remove bone marrow from the hip. The marrow then goes into a centrifuge.
"When we put it all in, you can see it was just all red, well now, we have plasma, buff coat and stem cells," said Tom Hankins, Ccp, Chief Perfusionist, Grant Medical Center
Then doctors inject the stem cells into the leg.
"It creates new, smaller blood vessels that give blood supply to the limb," said Hankins.
In one study, six out of nine patients who received the stem cell treatment avoided major amputation. Christina had the treatment. Three months later, she's pain-free and spunky as ever.
This therapy is currently in clinical trials and is not yet FDA-approved.
It's estimated that eight- to 12- million people in the U.S. have PAD. Risk factors include smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and a family history of heart disease. Leg pain after walking is the most common symptom.
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