Home  |  Contact US-ECP

How Model US-ECP Works

Treatment Table

Wearing loose fitting clothes, the patient lies on a padded treatment table and electrodes are applied to the patients chest to take a constant Electrocardiogram (EKG) reading during the entire treatment session.

In addition, a plethysmogragh, is attached to the patient's finger or ear lobe to monitor their blood pressure.  

Next, three (3) sets of adjustable pressure cuffs are wrapped around the patient’s lower extremities.  The cuffs are designed to provide the appropriate amount of pressure to the arteries.

Once the patient is comfortable, the treatment session begins.  Model US-ECP’s built in computer interprets the patient’s EKG and provides timing signals that control sequential inflation and deflation of the cuffs.  Each inflation cycle is timed to begin and end when the patient’s heart is at rest, called diastole.  During diastole, the heart chambers are filling with blood in preparation for the next contraction.  As diastole starts, the electronically controlled inflation valves inflate the cuffs in rapid sequence from the calves to the buttocks, creating a pressure wave that increases the patient’s diastolic pressure, coronary artery perfusion pressure, and blood flow of freshly oxygenated blood back to the myocardium through the coronary arteries.  In addition, there is an increase in the volume of venous blood (blood that has given up oxygen and taken up carbon dioxide) that is returned to the heart under increased pressure.  These two effects increase the oxygen supply and perfusion pressure in the heart muscle, as well as increase the volume of blood to be pumped during the next heart contraction (systolic).

Patient

As the patient’s heart nears the end of diastole and prepares for systole, the onboard computer instructs the electronically controlled deflation valves on the cuffs to open so that a vacuum can instantaneously deflate the cuffs.  This allows the blood to flow back into the lower extremities, reducing the amount of work the heart must do to pump blood into these areas. 

Repeated and pulsed increases in pressure during diastole may stimulate cardiac circulation to bypass blockages and restore blood deprived areas of the heart muscle.  This may stimulate the use of collateral vessels that are not being used, allowing blood to bypass blocked areas of the heart, resulting in an increased blood and oxygen supply to the heart muscle.

In short, Model US-ECP pumps when the heart is resting and releases pressure when the heart is working.  The computer-controlled inflation-deflation of the cuffs benefits the vascular system by increasing circulation in the patient’s heart muscle and other organs while reducing their systolic pressure and increasing the diastole pressure.