The Therapeutic Effects of Enhanced External Counterpulsation on Chronic Heart Failure

Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) was first introduced in the 1960s as a noninvasive procedure for the treatment of angina, refractory to medical therapy. Since its inception, technological advances have facilitated the procedure and rekindled interest in EECP as a mean to treat symptomatic Coronary artery disease and Acute hear failure. Here we studied the Effect of Enhanced External Counter pulsation on a group of patient with chronic heart failure. 30 consecutive patients (21 male, 9 female) were treated with EECP. Therapeutic effects of EECP on the quality of Life, echocardiographic parameters and 6 min. Walk test were assessed before and after the intervention. A nonsignificant difference was found in scores of quality of Life between pre and post EECP treatment (p=0.1). Echocardiographic finding revealed significant improvement of (LVEDD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by Simpson method (P=0.002) but the changes was not significant with MPI method (P=0.30). (LVESD) left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular end systolic diameter (LVESD) were also significantly reduced after EECPintervention (p=0.032, p=0.015). Exercise duration in 6 min. walk test was significantly increased after treatment (p=0.0001). This study demonstrated that EECP improves exercise tolerance. But does not significantly improve the LVEF and quality of Life in patient with chronic heart failure.