Endovascular photodynamic therapy to prevent arterial restenosis

Abstract

Since their existence, man has appreciated the benefits of sunlight and described some of its medicinal effects known as heliotherapy. Herodotus in the 6th century BC noticed that sunlight had beneficial effects on bone growth. Hippocrates in 460-375 BC advocated the use of heliotherapy for various human maladies [1]. In 1898, McCall-Anderson described skin photosensitivity due to porphyrin molecules [2]. In 1900, Raab using acridine orange described a photochemical action that led to the killing of protozoa [3]. In 1901, the Dane Niels Rydberg Finsen described the first scientific experiment in animals designated as phototherapy using light from a carbon arc. Phototherapy was defined as the use of visible or near-visible light in the treatment of disease [4]. He noticed that the use of ultraviolet light improved wound healing in smallpox in animals and lupus vulgaris in men. These studies were appreciated with naming a Medical Light Institute after him in Copenhagen and by awarding him the Nobel Prize for Physiology-Medicine in 1903. The Danish Queen Alexandra introduced the technique into the London Hospital in Whitechapel (now the Royal London Hospital) in 1904.