Hydrolysis promotes chelation, or the formation of network-type atomic connections, until the mass gels.
Also, at least within the first two years, the chelation therapy did not improve physical functioning or psychological well being, according to surveys of the patients.
The hypothesis is that chelation can remove the calcium that is a contributor to arterial plaques.
He said if people got the mistaken idea from the study that chelation was beneficial "it would be a public health catastrophe".
While critics were quick to point out the study's myriad irregularities, the findings have dumbfounded cardiologists: The results suggest chelation, originally used to treat lead poisoning, just might help heart patients.
The use of chelation to treat heart disease and other ailments is based largely on anecdotal experience, however, and the substance used in the new trial was disodium EDTA, which, unlike calcium disodium EDTA, is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this purpose.
At least two of the participating clinical sites were suspended because of protocol or safety violations, and the owner of the pharmacy responsible for distributing the blinded chelation solution was indicted on a charge of Medicaid fraud in the middle of the clinical trial.
But now a prestigious medical journal has published the results of a large, long-term clinical trial of chelation in heart disease patients.
The benefit of the treatment, known as chelation therapy, barely reached statistical significance, and there were questions about the reliability of the study.
Proponents of the study said that since chelation therapy was already widely used, it should be subject to the same rigorous scientific testing used to study conventional pharmaceuticals.
After a follow-up of 55 months, 26 percent of those who received chelation therapy had died, suffered a heart attack or stroke, had a procedure to reopen a coronary artery or had been hospitalized for angina.
