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Enhanced external counterpulsation
Enhanced external counterpulsation A non-invasive out-patient treatment for heart disease and, in particular, for angina (chest pain due to an inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart muscle). EECP is designed to relieve angina by improving perfusion in areas of the heart deprived of an adequate blood supply. EECP uses a device to inflate and deflate a series of compressive cuffs that are wrapped around the calves and lower and upper thighs. The basic principle involved is that of counterpulsation. The cuffs inflate during diastole, the period when the heart muscle relaxes and the chambers fill with blood. The cuffs inflate sequentially from the calves upwards, resulting in increased pressure in the aorta and coronary arteries. Compression of the vascular bed in the legs also increases the return of venous blood to the heart and increases cardiac output. Patients are customarily treated with EECP for an hour a day for a total of 35 hours.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Heart
The hollow, muscular organ responsible for pumping blood through the circulatory system.
Disease
Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the rubella (German measles) virus.
Angina
A recurring pain or discomfort in the chest that happens when some part of the heart does not receive enough blood. It is a common symptom of coronary heart disease, which occurs when vessels that carry blood to the heart become narrowed and blocked due to atherosclerosis. Angina feels like a pressing or squeezing pain, usually in the chest under the breast bone, but sometimes in the shoulders, arms, neck, jaws, or back. Angina is usually is brought on by exertion, and relieved within a few minutes by resting or by taking prescribed angina medicine. Commonly called chest pain, heart pain or angina pectoris.
Pain
An unpleasant sensory or emotional experience primarily associated with tissue damage, or described in terms of tissue damage, or both.
Oxygen
A chemical element essential for sustaining life.
Blood
The life-maintaining fluid which is made up of plasma, red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes), and platelets; blood circulates through the body's heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries; it carries away waste matter and carbon dioxide, and brings nourishment, electrolytes, hormones, vitamins, antibodies, heat, and oxygen to the tissues.
Diastole
The relaxation phase of the heartbeat.
Muscle
Tissue made up of bundles of long, slender cells that contract when stimulated.
Aorta
The largest artery in the body and the primary blood vessel leading from the heart to the body.
Arteries
Blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to the arms, legs, head, body and organs.
Compression
1. The act of pressing together. As in a compression fracture, nerve compression, or spinal cord compression. 2. To shorten in time. In embryology, there may be compression of development with some stages even omitted.
Vascular
Pertaining to blood vessels.
Venous
Having to do with a vein.
Cardiac
Pertaining to the heart.
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP)
A treatment for those with symptomatic coronary artery disease, not eligible for standard treatments of revascularization. During EECP, cuffs wrapped around the calves, thighs and buttocks are inflated and deflated, gently but firmly compressing the blood vessels in the lower limbs, increasing blood flow to the heart. EECP may stimulate the openings or formation of collateral vessels to create a "natural bypass" around narrowed or blocked arteries.
PREVIOUS AND NEXT TERMS--------------------------------------
Endourologist
An endourologist is a urologist with special expertise in navigating, using endoscopic optical instruments and other tools, inside the kidney, ureter and bladder. Endourologists are specialists in treating diseases of these organs.
Enediyne
A very potent and naturally occurring antibiotic that acts by cleaving DNA. The adverse effects of enediynes on cells include mutagenicity (increase mutation), halting mitois (cell division) by arresting the cell cycle, and inducing apoptosis (programmed cell death).
Enervate
1. To remove part or all of a nerve, a procedure also called a neurectomy. 2. To lose nervous energy and feel sapped of energy.
Enervation
The act of enervating or the state of being enervated.
Enfeeble
To make feeble or weaken. Years of chronic illness may leave someone enfeebled. The word enfeeble is not often used in medicine, perhaps because of a negative connotation of the word.
Enhanced external counterpulsation
Enophthalmos
Sunken eyeball.
Enoxaparin
A low-molecular-weight version of heparin which acts like heparin as an anticoagulant (anti-clotting) medication. Enoxaparin is used to prevent thromboembolic complications (clots that travel from their site of origin through the blood stream to clog up another vessel). Enoxaparin is also used in the early treatment of blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolisms).
ENT physician
A medical specialist who is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the head and neck, including particularly the ears, nose, and throat. ENT doctors are also called otolaryngologists.
Entamoeba histolytica
The agent of amebic dysentery, a disorder with inflammation of the intestine and ulceration of the colon. Entamoeba histolytica is a single-celled parasite that is transmitted to humans via contaminated water and food. It can also infect the liver and other organs.
Enteral
Pertaining to the small intestine. As in enteral nutrition. Also called enteric.
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