In a recent paper entitled “The improvement of the shear stress and oscillatory shear index of coronary arteries during Enhanced External Counterpulsation in patients with coronary heart disease”, which has been published online in PLOS One authors Xu L, Chen X, Cui M, Ren C, Yu H, Gao W, Li D, and Zhao W. concluded that “that the improvement of hemodynamic conditions along the LMCA trees during EECP became more significant with the increase of D/S and the severity degree of stenoses at the bifurcation site. These findings have important implications on EECP as adjuvant therapy before or after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with diffuse atherosclerosis.”
This study demonstrated that “regardless of the degree of vascular stenosis, hemodynamic conditions and flow patterns could be improved during EECP. In comparison with the original tree, the tree with a severe stenosis (75% area stenosis) demonstrated more significant improvement in hemodynamic conditions and flow patterns during EECP, with surface area ratio of TAWSS risk area (SAR-TAWSS) reduced from 12.3% to 6.7% (vs. SAR-TAWSS reduced from 7.2% to 5.6% in the original tree) and surface area ratio of OSI risk area (SAR-OSI) reduced from 6.8% to 2.5% (vs. SAR-OSI of both 0% before and during EECP in the original tree because of mild stenosis). Moreover, it was also shown that small ratio of diastolic pressure (D) and systolic pressure (S) (D/S) could only improve the hemodynamic condition mildly. The SAR-TAWSS reduction ratio significantly increased as D/S became larger.”
Free full text at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230144