Nitric oxide may benefit damaged hearts
From New Orleans, at a meeting of the American Heart Association
A sudden cutoff of oxygen can kill heart tissue and cause a heart attack. Even when blood flow is restored, however, yet another round of damage can occur, this time due to cell-killing swelling and inflammation.
In a new study of mice, breathing low concentrations of nitric oxide for 24 hours after a heart attack decreased the amount of heart-tissue death and scarring by 29 percent.