Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Physical Therapy Internal Medicine

Background: Extensive loss of cardiac muscle after ischemic attacks impedes cardi»ac function leading to impairement patients{u2019} life quality. Objective:The present study was designed to investigate effect of pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) on cardiac systolic function in myocardial infarction. Subjects and methods: Ten dogs were subjected experimentally to ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery; only seven were treated with PEMF with frequency 30 ± 3 Hz and a magnetic flux density increasing from 0 to 50/60 guss, 5 sessions / week for 4 weeks. The other dogs who did not subjected to PEMF served as controls. Echocardiographic assessments for ejection fraction (EF) and fractional shortening (FS) were performed preoperative, 1 week postoperative "pretreatment", 7 days post treatment and 1 month post treatment. Results: There were significant decrease in EF (t=12.64; p=0.0001) and FS (t=8.69; p=0.0001) in control group relative to study group at 1 month post treatment. Regarding study group EF increased from 64.44 ± 1.24% to72.96 ± 3.79 with a 13.22 % change ( p< 0.005) and FS increased from 38.78 ± 1.95% to 43.86 ± 2.19 with a 13.09 % change (p=0.002) at 1 month post treatment compared with pretreatment. Conclusions:These results indicate that PEMF improves cardiac systolic function and help early reperfusion of affected myocardium

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