Iron Oxide in heart ailments

A heart attack is caused by the formation of cholesterol plaque located on the inner-walls of an artery to the heart (coronary artery). Cholesterol is a fatty chemical, a lipid in nature. Plaque formation partially or entirely occludes the artery obstructing flow of blood, thereby hampering the functioning of circulatory system. By-pass surgery is a surgical technique where a by-pass is created over the region where the plaque is formed to provide an additional route through which blood can flow in spite of the plaque occluded artery. The main objective is to remove this atherosclerotic plaque via use of electric current induced heating effect using the biocompatible iron-oxide nano-particles. The iron-oxide nano-particles of 8-20 nm in size are synthesized by co-precipitation method, where varying the pH and temperature in an aqueous solution controls the particle size and self-assembly properties. These nano-particles, enveloped in specific biocompatible polymer, are to be delivered at most 1 cm before the site of the plaque formation, where the blood flow is toward the plaque. The site-specific delivery is to be done using infusion pump. The nano-particles shall get dislodged from the enveloped molecule and shall get attached to the plaque. In presence of external magnetic field (similar to that of MRI) the super paramagnetic bio-compatible iron-oxide particles generates flow of electricity through the plaque, which may correspondingly exhibit a heat induced melting of the plaque. Hence a therapeutic procedure followed using this technique shall result in at least 60-70% removal of the atherosclerotic occlusion