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Biotech / Medical : Vasomedical Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: madman who wrote (595)	10/29/1997 11:02:00 PM
From: DrJerry	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1605

Madman: skipping the headings-- We report the results of the first national, multicenter, randomized, placebo- controlled trial of enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP), a non-invasive therapy for pts with coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic angina pectoris (AP). Between 1996 and 1997 we enrolled 139 pts, of whom 84 have completed their course of therapy: 91% were males (mean age 63, range 35-81 yrs), 62% had prior CA bypass and/or angioplasty, 51% had prior myocardial infarctions, 70% were in Canadian Class 2 or 3, and 65% had "residual" multivessel CAD despite revascularization procedures. In addition to AP, enrollment criteria included documented CAD and a positive exercise (EX) test before pts. were randomized to active counterpulsation (AC) or inactive (sham) counterpulsation (IC) for 35 hrs of outpatient therapy over a 4-7 week period. Baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics were similar in the AC and IC groups. Results of pre-and post-counterpulsation EX test and first-and last week anginal diaries were analyzed in a blinded fashion. AC resulted in an increase in EX duration (447+/-75 sec(mean+-sem) to 486 +-72 p<.01), am increase in time to onset of ischemic st depression (340+-50 seco 390+-62 p<.001), a decrease in weekly anginal episodes (3.9+-0.5 to 2.4+-0.4 p<.01) and a decrease in weekly NTG usage (2.6+-0.4 to 1.2+-0.4 p<.01). IC resulted only in increased EX duration (408+-80 sc to 441+-82 p<.01) but unlike AC there was no significant correlation between the increase in duration and onset of ischemia. No serious complications occurred in either the AC or IC groups. In conclusion MUST-EECP demonstrates both the safety and efficacy of EECP in treating myocardial ischemia in pts with severe CAD, many of whom hasd failed prior CA bypass surgery and/or angioplasty. That's the abstract- my take is that the data is clearly positive for EECP and for VASO. Additional data not in the abstract which could be discussed in a question and answer session shows significant improvement in Canadian class levels such that Class 4 pts. improved to classes 3,2,1- CLass 3 to classes 2,1- Class 2 to class 1. I don't have the actual data with me but I recall %s in the 30-70% range which is very impressive. It also suggests that the conclusion in the last sentence re: "severe CAD" will and should be expanded to pts with CAD.