Effect of long-term remote ischemic conditioning in patients with chronic ischemic heart failure

Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) protects against acute ischemia-reperfusion injury and may also have beneficial effects in patients with stable cardiovascular disease. We investigated the effect of long-term RIC treatment in patients with chronic ischaemic heart failure (CIHF). In a parallel group study, 22 patients with compensated CIHF and 21 matched control subjects without heart failure or ischemic heart disease were evaluated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, skeletal muscle function testing, blood pressure measurement and blood sampling before and after 28 ± 4 days of once daily RIC treatment. RIC was conducted as four cycles of 5 min upper arm ischemia followed by 5 min of reperfusion. RIC did not affect left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) or global longitudinal strain (GLS) in patients with CIHF (p = 0.63 and p = 0.11) or matched controls (p = 0.32 and p = 0.20). RIC improved GLS in the subgroup of patients with CIHF and with NT-proBNP plasma levels above the geometric mean of 372 ng/l (p = 0.04). RIC did not affect peak workload or oxygen uptake in either patients with CIHF (p = 0.26 and p = 0.59) or matched controls (p = 0.61 and p = 0.10). However, RIC improved skeletal muscle power in both groups (p = 0.02 for both). In patients with CIHF, RIC lowered systolic blood pressure (p < 0.01) and reduced NT-proBNP plasma levels (p = 0.02). Our findings suggest that long-term RIC treatment does not improve LVEF but increases skeletal muscle function and reduces blood pressure and NT-proBNP in patients with compensated CIHF. This should be investigated in a randomized sham-controlled trial.