Safety and Efficacy of Remote Ischemic Conditioning in Adult Moyamoya Disease Patients Undergoing Revascularization Surgery

Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a non-invasive therapeutic approach for protecting organs or tissue against the detrimental effects of acute ischemia-reperfusion injury. Many protective factors produced by the stimulus of RIC could protect remote target organs and tissues through inhibiting oxidation and inflammation. The phenomenon of this protect effect was first found in myocardium ischemia-reperfusion injury and then RIC was used in children cardiac surgery to provide myocardial protection during operation. Then RIC was gradually applied to brain protection and a series of clinical researches have confirmed that it could improve the cerebral perfusion status, increase cerebral tolerance to ischemic injury, reduce perihematomal edema and promote clearance. Recently, a randomized controlled study reported that daily RIC could improve cerebral perfusion and slow arterial progression of adult MMD. Meanwhile, a single-arm open-label study also indicated that RIC was a promising noninvasive method for ischemic MMD control by relieving symptoms and reducing stroke recurrence. In addition, the effects of RIC on reducing neurological complications in MMD patients treated with revascularization surgery has also been reported. However, the mechanism of RIC in reducing peri-operative complications for MMD patients is still unknown. Thus, we conducted a randomized controlled study to explore the safety and efficacy of RIC in adult MMD patients undergoing revascularization therapy