Abstract: A method of treating congestive heart failure (CHF) in a human patient comprises treating an aliquot of the patient's blood ex vivo with at least one stressor selected from the group consisting of a temperature above or below body temperature, an electromagnetic emission and an oxidative environment, followed by administering the aliquot of treated blood to the patient. The treatment can be used on its own or as an adjunctive therapy in combination with conventional CHF treatments.

Abstract: In accordance with the present invention, it has been found that prolonged QT-c intervals in mammalian patients, indicative of susceptibility of the patients to arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, can be reduced by a process in which an aliquot of the patient's blood is removed and stressed extracorporeally, by application thereto of oxidative stress and electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light, and then re-injected into the patient. Such treatment results in a significant reduction in QT-c interval in the patients, indicative of reduced susceptibility to arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. In clinical trials described in the Examples section below, this reduction in QT-c interval was associated with a marked reduction in sudden cardiac death. There are also indications that, in the absence of treatment according to the invention, the patients would have exhibited a lengthening of their QT-c intervals.