Remote ischemic preconditioning in percutaneous coronary revascularization: a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of pre-procedural remote ischemic preconditioning on the incidence of myocardial complications following percutaneous coronary intervention. BACKGROUND: Ischemic preconditioning of a remote vascular territory improves the subsequent ischemic tolerance of distant organs. METHOD: The Myocardial Event Reduction with Ischemic Preconditioning Therapy (MERIT) trial recruited 80 consecutive patients undergoing elective angioplasty with drug-eluting stents to receive two 5-min lower limb tourniquet occlusions or an un-inflated tourniquet (controls) 1 h before the procedure. The primary outcome was troponin T level at 24 h. Secondary outcomes were intra-procedural chest pain and ST-segment deviation. RESULTS: 6 patients in the control group and 2 in the ischemic preconditioning group had pre-procedural raised troponin T (p = 0.23). This increased to 16 (40%) in the control group and 5 (12.5%) in the study group at 24 h (p = 0.01). Fewer patients in the study group experienced intra-procedural chest pain (1 vs. 7, p = 0.056). Mean ST-segment deviation time was 13 ± 35 s in the study group and 58 ± 118 s in the control group (p = 0.02). At a mean follow-up of 11 months, the major adverse cardiac event rate did not differ significantly between the groups. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that ischemic preconditioning reduces the absolute risk of post-procedure cardiomyocyte necrosis by 27.5%, and reduces intra-procedural chest pain and ST-segment deviation in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions. We suggest its routine use in percutaneous coronary intervention, although the long-term prognostic impact in this patient group warrants further investigation.

Short-term therapy with high dose atorvastatin in patients with coronary artery disease can reduce inflammatory process.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death and disability in adults. The association between acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and elevated serum high sensitivity c-reactive protein (hsCRP) suggests that chronic inflammation of the coronary arterial wall may play an important role. A number of drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease reduce serum CRP. It* is therefore possible that reduced inflammation contributes to the beneficial effects of these medications. This was a double blind randomized clinical trial on 52 patients were admitted because of ACS at the Mazandaran Heart Center, Iran in 2007. The patients were divided to three randomized groups which received 20, 40, 80* mg Atorvastatin daily for 6 months. At the time of study enrollment and 1, 3 and 6 months after initiation hsCRP were measured. 1 and 3 month after 20mg atorvastatin therapy the median serum concentration of hsCRP did not decrease significantly, but at the end of 6th month it was* significant difference. At 40 mg dosage from 3rd month to 6th month versus 1st month to 3rd month it was significant decrease, at the end of 1st month and 3rd month it was not significant. At 80 mg dose at the end of 1st month it was not significant but at the* end of 3rd month and end of 6th month it was significant. Intensive lipid-lowering therapy with high-dose atorvastatin therapy relative to moderate lipid-lowering therapy with low-dose atorvastatin reduces hsCRP better. We found that treatment with greater dose of atorvastatin might decrease greater in plasma level of hsCRP.