Clinical efficacy comparison between extracorporeal shock wave therapy and enhanced external counterpulsation for coronary heart disease

This study aims to evaluate the clinical efficacy of extracorporeal cardiac shock wave therapy(CSWT) and enhanced external counterpulsation(EECP),both individually and in combination,in patients with coronary artery disease(CAD),and to explore effective non-invasive treatment strategies. A total of 259 patients with CAD admitted between January 2023 and June 2024 were enrolled and randomly assigned to four groups:the Control group(n=65) received conventional medication only;the EECP group(n=65) received conventional medication plus EECP treatment(EECP; total duration 36 hours);the CSWT group(n=64) received conventional medication plus CSWT therapy(CSWT;total duration 4.5 hours);and the Combination group(EECP+CSWT group,n=65) received conventional medication combined with both CSWT(4.5 hours) and EECP(36 hours).Coronary stenosis severity,cardiac function indices,blood biochemistry and other indicators were evaluated at baseline and 12 months after treatment. Baseline characteristics showed no significant differences among the groups(P>0.05). After 12 months of treatment, the Gensini score of the EECP+CSWT group decreased by 20 points, which was significantly lower than that of the EECP group (-5 points, P