One of the most dramatic events on this planet occurred when levels of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere increased from 1 percent to 21 percent. 

If this success continues, Dr. Spears says aqueous oxygen may become standard protocol to help speed healing in the heart and other injured tissues.

Doesn't sound all that thrilling; in fact, it sounds like a random geological trivia fact. But this increased level of oxygen is the very thing that nourished the formation of human life. Now, 2 billion years later, Richard Spears, MD, is using oxygen in some novel ways to heal people.

"I've been studying oxygen since my last year of medical school," said Dr. Spears, a Wayne State University School of Medicine professor of internal medicine. "In the early '80s, I started to look at alternative ways of using oxygen." Since then, he has been engineering ways to increase oxygen flow to injured tissues and deprived areas of the body, always convinced that it could have major healing potential, if delivered efficiently.

It's starting to look as though that 20 years of work could pay off big for heart patients. Preliminary results from clinical trials at Beaumont and Providence hospitals show that a technology and technique developed by Dr. Spears may improve heart function of those who have undergone angioplasty for occluded coronary arteries.

Dr. Spears discovered he could essentially compress two phases of matter, gas and liquid, by dissolving extremely high concentrations of oxygen in a saline solution that would be stable at very high pressures. The aqueous oxygen then can be introduced as a liquid into the blood through tiny capillary tubes to treat oxygen-deprived tissues. The level of oxygen that can be used with this new approach is similar to levels previously achievable only with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

	Dr. Spears is working with TherOx to engineer systems that deliver concentrated amount of oxygen to ischemic tissue.
	Aqueous oxygen can be delivered to specific sites during coronary intervention, for example.

The clinical trials, which were conducted using 29 patients to evaluate the technique's safety as well as effectiveness, show that heart function improved by an average of 20 percent. Heart function continued to improve a month after the procedure.

"This is very encouraging news," said Dr. Spears. "We looked at heart function before and after hyperoxygenation and found a substantial improvement -- immediately and one month later. We have submitted these results to the FDA and will soon begin the next phase of testing."

Further trials will look at blood flow in small blood vessels. "After a stent procedure for treatment of a heart attack, for example, it is difficult to resume normal blood flow in the small vessels. But blood flow is essential to the healing process," said Dr. Spears.

If the technique can be perfected, physicians' ability to heal patients could be transformed. Aqueous oxygen, in theory, could be used in a number of different ailments, including heart attacks, stroke and non-healing wounds, particularly those suffered by diabetics.

"Any time there is swelling of live tissue or tissue death, healing is delayed," Dr. Spears said. "If we can control the flow of oxygen to an area, we can improve recovery."

Aqueous oxygen appears to work by reducing the swelling of cells that line the capillaries and reversing adhesion of white cells to damaged tissue so that red cells can get through and allow normal blood flow.
Treatment in dogs showed that oxygen in the solution dissolved in plasma, which was the only part of the blood able to travel through blocked capillaries in damaged or inflamed tissues. As the oxygen reached damaged tissue, it reduced swelling, which, in turn, allowed red blood cells to flow freely. 

What began as a theoretical laboratory project is now directly improving heart function for patients throughout metro Detroit.

Aqueous oxygen appears to be a cheaper, safer and more efficient way of delivering oxygen to damaged tissue than other methods of oxygen delivery, such as hyperbaric chambers. Hyperbaric chambers have drawbacks, Dr. Spears said, because they can't be decompressed quickly and there is no good way to control how much oxygen is delivered to a specific region of the body. Vessels constrict inside the chamber and an overdose of oxygen can damage the lungs. 

Aqueous oxygen, on the other hand, is infused directly into the bloodstream at precise levels through specially designed guidewires and catheters. The lungs aren't even exposed to potentially dangerously high levels of oxygen. However, the question does remain as to how long is the optimum amount of time to expose a patient's tissues to the solution, Dr. Spears said.

"We still don't know. What is the ideal level of oxygen? Is it better to do it intermittently or in one continuous session?" Dr. Spears asked. "Biologically, we don't know the optimum level."

Aqueous oxygen also has other uses, most notably its ability to purify waste water. A Detroit facility is testing Dr. Spears' invention that he believes can treat upwards of 1,000 gallons per minute.

Dr. Spears and Wayne State University have patented the technology, which has been licensed by TherOx Inc., a California company that is developing the product and was co-founded by Dr. Spears.

"It really is exciting to think about what we can do with this technology," Dr. Spears said. "It is a wonderful tool both for human life and the environment."