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

To: Bill Lotozo who wrote (636)	11/9/1997 8:29:00 PM
From: Preston Lurie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1605

JUST for excitement... Results of the Multicenter Study of Enhanced External Counterpulsation (MUST-EECP): EECP Reduces Anginal Episodes and Exercise-Induced Myocardial Ischemia ÿ Rohit R Arora, Columbia University, New York, NY; Tony M Chou, University of California, San Francisco, CA; Diwakar Jain, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Richard W Nesto, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; Bruce Fleishman, Grant Riverside Methodist, Columbus, OH; Lawrence Crawford, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; Thomas McKiernan, Loyola University, Maywood, IL ÿ 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 1995 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 surgery 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 tests and first-and last-week anginal diaries were analyzed in a blinded fashion. AC resulted in an increase in EX duration (447ñ75 sec(meanñsem) to 486ñ72 p .01), an increase in time to onset of ischemic ST depression (340ñ50 sec to 390ñ62 p .001), a decrease in weekly anginal episodes (3.9ñ0.5 to 2.4ñ0.4 p .01) and a decrease in weekly NTG usage (2.6ñ0.4 to 1.2ñ0.4 p .01). IC resulted only in increased EX duration (408ñ80 sec to 441ñ82 p .01) but unlike AC there was no significant correlation between the increase in EX 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 had failed prior CA bypass surgery and/or angioplasty. ÿ