Cardioprotective and Prognostic Effects of Remote Ischemic Preconditioning in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Single-Center Randomized, Double-Blind Trial

During the past 3 decades, several experimental stud-ies have shown that ischemic conditioning reduces myocardial damage by modifying ischemia-reperfusion injury. A recent study in the Lancet indicates that remote ischemic preconditioning translates into clinical benefit in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. The implications of the study extend to patients undergoing elective and acute coronary angioplasty and beyond. Adjunctive therapies to reduce myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury related to cardiac surgery and percutaneous coronary interventions have yet to find their way into clinical practice, mainly because no pharmacological or mechanical cardioprotective strategy has convincingly shown clinically relevant benefit to the patient.1 That may be about to change. In a recent study by Thielmann et al,2 329 low-risk patients un-dergoing elective isolated on-pump first-time coronary arter