Remote ischaemic preconditioning reduces myocardial injury in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cold-blood cardioplegia: a randomised controlled trial
- V Venugopal1,
- D J Hausenloy1,
- A Ludman1,
- C Di Salvo2,
- S Kolvekar2,
- J Yap2,
- D Lawrence2,
- J Bognolo2,
- D M Yellon1
- 1The Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, University College London Hospital, London, UK
- 2The Heart Hospital, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, London, UK
- Correspondence to Professor D M Yellon, The Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, University College London Hospital, 67 Chenies Mews, London WC1E 6HX, UK; d.yellon{at}ucl.ac.uk
- Accepted 23 September 2008
- Published Online First 8 June 2009
Abstract
Background: Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) induced by brief ischaemia and reperfusion of the arm reduces myocardial injury in coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery patients receiving predominantly cross-clamp fibrillation for myocardial protection. However, cold-blood cardioplegia is the more commonly used method world wide.
Objective: To assess whether RIPC is cardioprotective in CABG patients receiving cold-blood cardioplegia.
Design: Single-centre, single-blinded, randomised controlled trial.
Setting: Tertiary referral hospital in London.
Patients: Adults patients (18–80 years) undergoing elective CABG surgery with or without concomitant aortic valve surgery with cold-blood cardioplegia. Patients with diabetes, renal failure (serum creatinine >130 mmol/l), hepatic or pulmonary disease, unstable angina or myocardial infarction within the past 4 weeks were excluded.
Interventions: Patients were randomised to receive either RIPC (n = 23) or control (n = 22) after anaesthesia. RIPC comprised three 5 min cycles of right forearm ischaemia, induced by inflating a blood pressure cuff on the upper arm to 200 mm Hg, with an intervening 5 min reperfusion. The control group had a deflated cuff placed on the upper arm for 30 min.
Main outcome measures: Serum troponin T was measured preoperatively and at 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h after surgery and the area under the curve (AUC at 72 h) calculated.
Results: RIPC reduced absolute serum troponin T release by 42.4% (mean (SD) AUC at 72 h: 31.53 (24.04) μg/l.72 h in controls vs 18.16 (6.67) μg/l.72 h in RIPC; 95% CI 2.4 to 24.3; p = 0.019).
Conclusions: Remote ischaemic preconditioning induced by brief ischaemia and reperfusion of the arm reduces myocardial injury in CABG surgery patients undergoing cold-blood cardioplegia, making this non-invasive cardioprotective technique widely applicable clinically.
Trial registration number: NCT00397163.
Footnotes
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Funding This work was undertaken at UCLH/UCL who received a proportion of funding from the Department of Health’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme.
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Competing interests None.
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Ethics approval Local ethics committee approval received.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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See Editorial, p 1553
