Second, just as the heart begins to beat, EECP deflates the cuffs and creates a vacuum-like action in the arteries. This reduces the work of your heart muscle in pumping blood into the arteries.
Based on the results of clinical trials, therapy with EECP can help relieve symptoms of angina, reduce the need for angina medications, and reduce the frequency and intensity of chest pain. The procedure can also increase your ability to exercise and give you more independence in daily activities.
Because EECP helps reduce the frequency and intensity of chest pain for the short and long-term, many people who undergo treatment experience an improved sense of well-being and overall improvement in their quality of life.
Since individual conditions differ, there is no specific time when you might expect to feel better. Most people experience some improvement after 10-12 sessions. Others require a longer period of time to notice a difference in their angina symptoms.
What evidence is there that EECP can be beneficial?
Published reports have found that EECP is a relatively safe and effective option for certain people with angina. The Multicenter Study of Enhanced External Counterpulsation (MUST-EECP) randomly assigned 139 people with angina from seven US hospitals to receive either active EECP or a placebo (inactive) procedure for 35 hours over four to seven weeks.
About two-thirds of the people receiving EECP benefited from the treatment. Compared with the people who received the placebo procedure, those who completed the active EECP sessions had significantly less angina and tended to need less nitroglycerin. Also, people who received the active EECP were able to exercise longer before experiencing chest pain. Ten people dropped out of the study because of adverse events – half of them because of leg pain or chafing. The study was published in the June 1999 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
EECP appears to have both short-term and long-term benefits. A study published in the April 2000 issue of Clinical Cardiology reported results in 33 patients with coronary heart disease who received EECP. After five years, 64 percent did not need bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty and did not have a major adverse cardiovascular event. This rate is similar to that found in many people who are treated with bypass surgery or angioplasty.
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