title: Treatment with enhanced external counterpulsation improves cognitive functions in chronic heart failure patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chronic heart failure (CHF) has been associated with an increased risk of poorer cognitive performance in older adults. Reversibility of cognitive impairment after medical treatment has been reported, although the restorative effects of enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) on cognitive performance have not been studied. We investigated the effect of EECP on cognitive functions in CHF patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six individuals (mean age: 66±8 years) who were diagnosed with CHF and were New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class II-III and Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) Class II-III participated in this study. Neuropsychological assessment was performed in these patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients in the EECP treatment group showed a statistically significant improvement in spontaneous naming (p=0.011) and forward row score of the attention subset among domains of cognition (p=0.020) and interference time of executive function (p=0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Enhanced external counter pulsation resulted in improvement in all domains of cognitive functions except verbal and visual memory tests.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey.
authors.forename: Güliz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kozdağ
authors.forename: Pervin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Işeri
authors.forename: Gökçen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gökçe
authors.forename: Gökhan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ertaş
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aygün
authors.forename: Ayşe
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kutlu
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hebert
authors.forename: Dilek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ural
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D015908:Counterpulsation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016896:Treatment Outcome