Postconditioning the Human Heart

BACKGROUND: In animal models, brief periods of ischemia performed just at the time of reperfusion can reduce infarct size, a phenomenon called postconditioning. In this prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter study, we investigated whether postconditioning may protect the human heart during coronary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction. METHODS AND RESULTS: Thirty patients, submitted to coronary angioplasty for ongoing acute myocardial infarction, contributed to the study. Patients were randomly assigned to either a control or a postconditioning group. After reperfusion by direct stenting, control subjects underwent no further intervention, whereas postconditioning was performed within 1 minute…