Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) describes what happens during the treatment.

• "Enhanced" refers to the state of art technology that developed during decades of research and is used for EECP treatment today.
• "External" means it happens outside the body and does not require surgery or other invasive procedure
• "Counter Pulsation" refers to occur between heart beats.

Angina is a signal from your heart muscle that it is not receiving enough blood and oxygen because the arteries that supply the heart muscle are blocked or narrowed. Angina, often called "chest pain", it can also go down the left arm, between the shoulder blades, or in the jaw.

Heart failure means when the heart muscle becomes so weak it cannot pump enough blood to meet the demands of the rest of the body. There are two types of heart failure. The most common type is "ischemic". The heart muscle is damaged by a long-standing lack of sufficient blood and oxygen, or by heart attack. The other type is "non-ischemic" or "idiopathic". Some of the possible causes include a viral infection of the heart muscle, disease of the heart valves, high blood pressure, or the abuse of alcohol or drugs, or the cause may not be known. Heart failure symptoms include having trouble in breathing (shortness of breath) and feeling very tired after even a small amount of effort.

EECP therapy works by increasing the blood and oxygen supply to the heart muscle and decreasing the amount of work, the heart has to do to pump blood to the rest of the body. While the heart is at rest, the treatment cuffs inflate from the calves to the thighs to the buttocks, which increases the blood supply to the arteries feeding the heart muscle. Just before the next heart beat, all the cuffs deflate at the same time, which decreases the amount of work the heart has to do.

 How does EECP works?

EECP enhances blood flow to the heart and coronary arteries by squeezing blood out of the lower parts of the body up towards the heart. It is also called “Natural By Pass” .EECP stimulate the growth of new blood vessels (collateral Formation) around blocked arteries.

How EECP procedure is performed?

• You will be lying comfortably on special therapy bed.
• Your pulse, blood pressure and oxygen saturation is monitored prior to initiating treatment.
• Pair of three adjustable cuffs are wrapped around your calves, lower thigh and upper thigh including buttocks.
• You are hooked up to an ECG interpreted micro-processor to activate the cuff.
• Cuffs inflate sequentially starting with the calf cuff then lower thigh and lastly the upper thigh including the buttocks at the onset of diastole and cuffs deflate abruptly just prior to systole ,allowing a rapid drop in vascular impedance and consequently, cardiac afterload. After completion of one hour treatment again your vitals (pulse. BP and oxygen saturation) will be checked.

The initial course of EECP therapy involves 35 consecutive one hour sessions. During an EECP clinic visit, a patient lies on a comfortable bed and has blood pressure-type cuffs wrapped around his or her calves and thighs. Cardiac monitoring wires are attached to the patient’s chest to record the heart beat, and then the EECP pumping console rapidly inflates and deflates the leg cuffs in time with the heart beat. The immediate result of this pumping is to dramatically improve blood flow back into the heart while simultaneously reducing the heart's workload.

The EECP treatment gently but firmly compresses the blood vessels in the lower limbs to increase blood flow to your heart. Each wave of pressure is electronically timed to the heartbeat, so that the increased blood flow is delivered to your heart at the precise moment it is relaxing. When the heart pumps again, pressure is released instantaneously. This lowers resistance in the blood vessels in the legs so that blood may be pumped more easily from your heart.

EECP may encourage blood vessels to open small channels that become extra branches. These channels or collaterals may eventually become "natural bypass" vessels to provide blood flow to heart muscle. This contributes to the relief of angina symptoms.

 Treatment Regimen:
A course of 35 hours is the usual treatment regimen.
One hour per day, six days per week for almost six weeks.