Diving deep into chelation therapy for coronary artery disease: a review

Chelation therapy is still a mainstay therapy when it comes to dealing with heavy metal intoxication. The ability of various chelators to bind metal and other chemical molecules led to the idea whether chelation therapy can be used as an alternative therapy to enchain calcium element that is known to be present in the atherosclerotic plaque. Various studies have been conducted, one of which is a large trial to assess chelation therapy study to show in case ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) chelator can be proven by evidence-based in managing coronary heart disease. Despite the favorable results that were found in many literature studies, the results of the study are still under debate in various aspects. To address this issue, we conducted a review article to discuss comprehensively the general description of EDTA as chelation therapy, various mechanisms that can explain the use of EDTA in the management of coronary heart disease, the pharmacokinetic aspects of EDTA chelation therapy, as well as describing various existing studies with a good level of evidence to review the effectiveness of these therapies against coronary artery disease.