Remote Ischemic Postconditioning During Percutaneous Coronary Interventions

Remote Ischemic Postconditioning During Percutaneous Coronary Interventions.

Angioplasty is a commonly performed procedure for treating blockage of the blood vessels in the heart. Although this procedure is usually successful, it is often accompanied by a small degree of damage to the heart (i.e., small heart attack).

The purpose of this study is to find out if inflating a blood pressure cuff on the arm or the leg at the time of angioplasty for several minutes has a beneficial effect.

Patients will be assigned to one of three treatment groups: inflating blood pressure cuff on the arm, inflating blood pressure cuff on the leg and a control group.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients scheduled for PCI

Exclusion Criteria:

• Acute myocardial infarction
• Myocardial infarction or coronary bypass surgery during the last 4 weeks before PCI
• Use of Glyburide
• Heart failure (NYHA III/IV)
• Chronic inflammatory disease
• Severe renal impairment
• Significant peripheral vascular disease
• Unsuitable for use of an embolic protection device for PCI to SVG