I am convinced there is something to this. Initially, I thought that there must some kind of placebo effect. Now, based on that trial and some clinical experience, I'm pretty convinced that there is more to it than just a placebo effect. The Japanese have published data that show that patients treated with EECP have chronically increased nitric oxide levels and decreased levels of endothelin. Now, I'm not sure if these factors are responsible for the prolonged effect of this treatment.
Nobody knows, and that needs to be investigated.
In fact, the next step in this whole investigation is to try and figure out the mechanism. Perhaps we will be able to find this out through thallium perfusion studies or similar types of studies. We're in the process of trying to organize an NIH study to investigate that very thing. And now it sounds like we have some real data to support further investigations. I am now convinced that there is something here that needs to be looked at.