echocardiographic characteristics including tissue doppler imaging after enhanced external counterpulsation therapy

background: the aim of this study was to echocardiographically assess the effects of eecp (enhanced external counterpulsation therapy) therapy on systolic and diastolic cardiac function. methods: lvef (left ventricular ejection fraction), esv (end-systolic volume), edv (end-diastolic volume), sm (myocardial systolic wave) , ea (myocardial early diastolic wave), vp (propagation velocity), e/ea (peak early diastolic transmitral flow velocity/ea), e/vp and diastolic function grade were studied in twenty-five patients before and after 35 hours of eecp. results: eecp reduced esv and edv and increased ef significantly (p=0.018, 0.013, 0.002, respectively) in patients with baseline lvef≤50%, but not in patients with baseline lvef>50%. patients with e/ea ≥ 14 had a significant reduction in edv and esv (p=0.038 and 0.32, respectively) and an increase in lvef (p=0.007) after eecp, whereas patients with baseline e/ea<14 had no significant change in these parameters. similarly, eecp significantly improved esv, edv and lvef (p=0.014, 0.032, 0.027 respectively) in patients with grades ii and iii of diastolic dysfunction (decreased compliance) at baseline, but not in patients with normal diastolic function or grade i diastolic dysfunction (impaired relaxation). patients with ea<7 cm/sec prior to eecp showed significant improvement in edv, esv and lvef after therapy (p=0.024, 0.015, 0.001), while patients with ea ≥ 7cm/sec showed no significant change. similarly, patients with sm<7cm/sec prior to eecp showed significant improvement in edv, esv and lvef after eecp (p=0.016, 0.017, 0.006), while patients with sm ≥ 7cm/sec did not. conclusion: these results provide new insight into the hemodynamic effectiveness and potential clinical applications of eecp.