Association of remote ischemic peri-conditioning with reduced incidence of clinical heart failure after primary percutaneous coronary intervention

Background Clinical heart failure (HF) occurs frequently after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), and is associated with increased mortality. We assessed the impact of remote ischemic peri-conditioning (RIPC) during inter-facility air medical transport of STEMI patients on clinical HF following primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). Methods Data from Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network Registry®-Get With the Guidelines™ (ACTION Registry-GWTG) from two PCI-hospitals that are utilizing RIPC during inter-facility helicopter transport of STEMI patients for pPCI between March, 2013 and September, 2015 were used for this study. The analyses were limited to inter-facility STEMI patients transported by helicopter with LVEF <55% after pPCI. The outcome measures were occurrence of clinical HF and serum level of brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP). Results Out of the 150 STEMI patients in this analysis, 92 patients received RIPC and 58 did not. The RIPC and non-RIPC groups were generally similar in demographic and clinical characteristics except for lower incidence of cardiac arrest in the RIPC group (3/92 [3.3%] versus 13/58 [22.4%], p = 0.002). STEMI patients who received RIPC were less likely to have in-hospital clinical HF compared to patients who did not receive RIPC (3/92 [3.3%] versus 7/58 [12.1%]; adjusted OR = 0.22, 95% CI 0.05–0.92, p = 0.038) after adjusting for baseline differences. In subgroup analysis, RIPC was associated with lower BNP (123 [interquartile range, 17.0–310] versus 319 [interquartile range, 106–552], p = 0.029). Conclusion RIPC applied during inter-facility air transport of STEMI patients for pPCI is associated with reduced incidence of clinical HF and serum BNP.