The effects of remote ischemic preconditioning of endothelial function in infants

Objective To find a way for carrying remote ischemic preconditioning(RIPC)and to study the effects of RIPC of endothelial function in infants.Methods 40 infants weight less than 7 kilograms were divided into two groups randomly(control group and preconditioning group,20 cases for each group).The basic endothelial functions in the form of flow-mediated dilation(FMD)on right upper arms'brachial artery in both groups were assessed by high resolution ultrasound.Then the patients in the preconditioning group were remotely preconditioned on the left upper arms with three cycles of 3 min ischemia and 3 min reperfusion;while the patients in control group were not preconditioned.After 20 minutes,ischemic(keeping inflation of tourniquet to 240 mmHg for 15min)and reperfusion(keeping deflation of tourniquet for 15min)was done on the contralateral limb in both groups,the FMD was re-checked at the same manner.Results The RIPC were carried without any complications.The basic FMD in both groups were not different which were decreased significantly after the ischemia-reperfusion.After the ischemia-reperfusion,the FMD in the preconditioning group was(12.33± 2.45)%,while in the control group was(8.90±2.12)%,which lower than the preconditioning group significantly (P0.05).Conclusions The RIPC on upper arm can be carried safely in infants and can alleviate endothelial ischemia-reperfusion injury.