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November 21, 2002
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reporting
Here's a story you'll find hard to believe. Heart patients
with artery disease are getting bounced up and down on a bed,
and getting better.
The treatment by University of Utah cardiologists is a bona
fide FDA approved therapy that works.
More
Info
- For
more info. from the University of Utah call:
801-585-7721
- More
on EECP
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Patients
with artery disease get a one hour treatment per day, five
days a week, for seven weeks. The payoff really comes at the
end, but many are noticing a difference even after the first
one.
Forty-two-year-old
Lynette Bertocchini has artery disease.
Before this treatment, she had angina or heart pain, was exhausted,
and had to stop and rest after climbing just a single flight
of stairs.
Then cardiologists told her about this thing called EECP.
Her reaction...
"Oh man - guinea pig, oh no -- but I didn't have too
many options left so I was going to try it and see what happens,"
she says.
Cuffs are wrapped around Bertocchini from her calves to the
thighs.
A sophisticated computer inflates and deflates the cuffs in
exact synchronization with the heartbeat, applying pressure
on the vessels in her lower extremities.
She feels no pain but is bounced around a bit.
"It's bouncy. It's hard to talk and it also makes the
machine crazier. It goes faster because my heart is pumping
faster," Bertocchini says.
This may look barbaric, but it's not. Scientists have been
extensively studying this device for the past three years.
"We know it is increasing the flow and pressure in the
coronary arteries as well as all the other arteries to the
other organs," says Ruth Smith, M.D., a cardiology at
the University of Utah.
In fact, Dr. Smith says the increased blood flow appears to
stimulate smaller vessels to grow and actually bypass the
clogged artery.
"It's an odd feeling. It's like a blood pressure cuff,
but a lot tighter," Bertocchini says.
Even though this is only her 14th out of 35 treatments, Bertocchini
can feel the difference.
"I get up the stairs and I can keep going. I don't have
to stop and rest, so there is a change. There is a difference
and it's a good feeling," she says.
Dr. Smith says cardiologists have been a little reluctant
and cautious, but they're now starting to use this treatment
as an alternative to bypass surgery and balloon angioplasty.
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