Efficacy of Enhanced External Counter Pulsation on Clinical Parameters and Health-Related Quality of Life in Coronary Heart Disease patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

To assess the effect of Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) treatment on clinical parameters and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) patients with Diabetes Mellitus. This was a pretest-posttest designed prospective study among 163 diabetic and non-diabetic coronary heart disease patients enrolled from SAAOL Heart Center, New Delhi, India. Patients were divided into two groups- diabetic CHD group and non-diabetic CHD group. EECP treatment was given to both the groups for 35 day. After EECP treatment physical and clinical profile along with HRQoL of study participants was assessed. The physical profile of study participants was assessed using Cooper’s 12 minutes’ walk test, Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) angina scale and Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scale and HRQoL was assessed through SF-36 (short form) and Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) scale. The follow-up of both groups was done at 6th and 12th months. Collected data were assessed through IBM, SPSS software v 21. Descriptive analysis with sample t-test for two independent groups and paired sample t-test for EECP effectiveness within the group was done. A significant improvement was observed in blood pressure; heart rate, lipid profile angina and MRC score in both the groups at 6th and 12 month follow-up. A significant reduction was observed in blood sugar fasting, blood sugar postprandial (PP) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in diabetic CHD patients. A significant improvement was also observed in all health domains of SF-36 & SAQ scale HRQoL after EECP treatment. EECP therapy is an effective non-invasive method to treat diabetic and non–diabetic CHD patients. This therapy may improve both physical (physical functional capacity, angina, dyspnea) and clinical profile (lipid profile, lower the blood glucose level) in diabetic CHD patients. EECP may also improve clinical symptoms of CHD patients and lower the blood glucose level in diabetic CHD patients this may directly improve overall HRQoL of CHD patients with DM.