EECP Therapy: Non-Invasive Bypass Miracle?
While being the strongest and hard-working organ in the body, the heart is often crippled in its Useful functioning by factors such as unhealthy lifestyle, environment and genetics. Heart disease is the leading Reason of death in men and women in the USA accounting for 610,000 deaths every year. Coronary heart disease kills an additional 370,000 people in the US every year. While a stent or a surgical intervention like CABG remains the mere hope for patients of outstanding arterial blockage. Recently a new EECP therapy, a non-invasive method, is being hailed as a “miracle” for millions of people with heart blockages. Is EECP really that impressive? Let’s find out more.
What is EECP & How Long Does Treatment Last?
EECP, or Enhanced External Counter pulsation, is a non-invasive, outpatient procedure for treating angina. It requires binding cuffs to a patient’s legs and hip and inflating-deflating them consecutively to complement the heart’s common beating rhythm. A continuous electrocardiogram programs the inflation and compression cycle. A finger monitor measures the amount of oxygen in the patient’s blood and also calculates the pressure waves generated by these inflations and deflations.
The treatment duration of EECP therapy is normally 35 hours, divided into one hour Each day, seven weeks, five days a week. During the treatment, the patient lies quietly on a specially-designed EECP bed. Cuffs similar to those used to measure blood pressure are wrapped around the patient’s calves, thighs and buttocks. These cuffs then inflate and let down at specific time intervals Among heartbeats. This inflation and compression are controlled precisely by a computer-controlled ECG machine.
What Causes Angina?
Angina is the body’s signal that the heart muscles are not procuring enough blood and thus oxygen. This insufficient blood supply is due to blockage in the arteries and subsequent narrowing of the arteries. When the heart muscles do not obtain sufficient blood, they cry for assistance. This leads to chest pain or pain down the left arm, between the shoulder in the jaw or with blades. If the heart does not get enough blood for a long Duration, its muscles become fragile and are not able to pump the blood for the body. This may ultimately result in Heart failure.
How Does EECP Help?
EECP therapy works in two ways. One, it increases blood and oxygen given to the heart muscles, and two, it reduces the heart’s workload of pumping blood. EECP is also shown to raise the production of angiogenesis Elements. A study found that EECP acts to raise the production of nitric oxide (NO), That is a vasodilator (enlarges the blood vessel) and Reduce the production of vasoconstrictor endothelin (ET-1).
Which Patients Benefit The Most from EECP?
Patients with Secular stable angina (those having signals like chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue and cough) can Advantage from this treatment method. Studies have also indicated that folks with severe atherosclerosis (widespread arterial blockage) and persistent angina, silent ischemia (heart issue where there is no sign of pain), heart failure as well as those with kidney and lung failure can also benefit from this treatment.
What Does Research Say About EECP?
A joint study by Israeli and American scientists judges the benefits and safety of EECP in heart failure patients. They found the EECP therapy safe-conduct and beneficial for functional as well as physiological improvement.
A study that evaluated long-term outcomes of EECP found that in around 75% of the patients, EECP successfully treated angina whereas it also improved the well-being of life in 50% of the patients, over a two-year study.
An interesting study compared patients undergoing an optional surgical obtrusion and those selecting an EECP treatment. After one year, both groups had near-Equal health characteristics. This proves that EECP is a safe-conduct treatment option for selected patients with obstructive coronary disease.
A recent review examines all the studies done so far on the efficiency of EECP in attribution with coronary artery disease (CAD). It found that EECP therapy notably increases blood flow through heart muscles and improves angina pectoris in CAD patients past EECP therapy.
What Type Of Patients Aren’t Fit For EECP Therapy?
Patients with the following conditions aren’t suitable for EECP therapy:
- Arrhythmias (irregular pulse) that interfere with machine triggering
- Bleeding disorder (due to difficulty with the blood coagulation Manner)
- Thrombophlebitis (inflammation of a vein due to a blood clot)
- Vaso-occlusive disease (a severe, often painful, complication of hook cell anemia)
- Aortic aneurysm (where the aorta is enlarged or dilated to 1.5 times its first diameter)
Also, the therapy is not suited for pregnant females.
Precautions to be Followed Prior to EECP Therapy
Blood pressure bigger than 180/110 mmHg should first be controlled prior to starting EECP therapy. A heart rate greater than 120 bpm should be maintained to a certain limit first. Patients who have an imprecise heart valve need to be carefully monitored throughout the studies of the treatment. Certain valve deficiencies may make a patient improper for EECP therapy.
Parting words
EECP provides a safe-conduct, non-invasive optional to the more risk-laden surgical procedures. EECP is a hopeful therapy but not a miracle people guess it to be. Although it shows Super results in more than 80% of the patients who utilize it, it is not right for every heart patient. However, it can be used as an impressive treatment for coronary artery disease in most patients with stable conditions.
