MORE and more people with cardiac ailments in Kerala - where heart diseases account for over 40 per cent of all deaths - are opting for a non-surgical procedure called enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP).

Currently the Doctors Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine and Research Centre (DDNMRC) in the heart of the capital is the only hospital in the state that uses this non-risk method to treat patients.

There are only 20 other hospitals in India that conduct this procedure. Ajith Joy, a nuclear cardiologist at DDNMRC, told IANS that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved the procedure in 1995, but it became available in India only in 2006 and DDNMRC began using it to treat patients a year ago.

Since then, about 60 people have been treated using EECP at the hospital here.

'Initially, I treated around three to five patients in a month but now the number has increased to about 10.

More importantly, the number of people wanting to know what EECP is all about has doubled. We get an average of 10 calls everyday,' Joy said.

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