The United States Multicenter Study of Enhanced External Counterpulsation (MUST-EECP)

Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a noninvasive ECG-timed procedure that employs sequential balloon inflation and deflation in the lower extremities to provide diastolic augmentation and systolic unloading.1 Open clinical trials conducted at the University Hospital and Medical Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, demonstrated that treatment with EECP resulted in a significant decrease in anginal frequency, improved cardiac flow in radionuclide scans and increased exercise tolerance.1 These results, however, were achieved without the benefit of a control population against which to conpare results of treatment. MUST-EECP, the first national, randomized, placebo- controlled trial of EECP, was conducted to provide such a control group and to evaluate EECP results at study centers other than Stony Brook.