Northwestern made strides in recent weeks pioneering heart attack research and lowering mortality rates.

Becker’s Hospital Review ranked Northwestern Memorial Hospital second on a list of the lowest 30-day heart attack mortality rates. New York University Hospitals Center topped the list.

Northwestern Memorial had a 10.4 percent mortality rate, about 5 percent less than the national average, according to Hospital Compare, government data provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Northwestern Medicine and The University of Sydney also released a research study in January on a new method aimed to reduce the damage caused by heart attacks.

The scientists involved discovered a therapy capable of decreasing the after affects of heart attacks by injecting an individual with biodegradable micro-particles within 24 hours of the attack.

Investigator Daniel Getts, a visiting scholar in microbiology-immunobiology in the Feinberg School of Medicine and co-author on the study, said this is the first therapy of its kind. The particles created are able to directly target and reduce the size of heart lesions by up to 50 percent, allowing the heart to pump more blood.

These micro-particles have also shown potential to repair tissue in other inflammatory diseases including the West Nile virus and multiple sclerosis.

The scientists in the study have joined forces with Cour Pharmaceutical Development Co., a startup biotechnology company, and plan to start a clinical trial of the drug within two years.

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