Preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of enhanced external counter pulsation on heart rate variability for heart failure patients

In this study the effect of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) on heart rate variability (HRV) during enhanced external counter pulsation (EECP) for heart failure patients was assessed. It is well understood that the ECG waveform windows the activity of the autonomic nervous system, which is quantified by determining the parameters such as low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) power. As the treatment progressed an increase in the HF, post treatment was observed. The preliminary results suggest that EECP treatment initiates an increase in vagal activity, with the most notable increase occurring between the third and fifth week period of the treatment.