ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo study the cardioprotective effects of ischemic post-conditioning on elderly patients with ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEM1).MethodsConsecutive 215 patients with STEMI undergoing emergency percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) were randomly assignedto receive ischemicpost-conditioningorconventional PCItreatment.The ischemic postconditioning (n=38) were conducted by 3 episodes of 30-second occlusion followed by 30-second reperfusion, while the control group (n= 46) was without any intervention after PCI.Reperfusion arrhythmias, corrected TIMI frame count (cTFC) and TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG)were compared between the two groups, respectively.Results The incidence of reperfusion arrythmias was less frequent in ischemic postconditioning group (21.1％ ,8/38) than in control group (45.7％ ,21/46) after PCI (x2 = 5.571, P＜0.05). The TIMI grade 3 flow was similar between two groups [(94.7％(36/38) vs. 82.6％( 38/46), x2= 2.919, P＞0.05], the cTFC levels (23.6±3.7vs. 26.1 ±5.9) and TMPG 3 perfusion [ 89.5％ (34/38) vs.69.6％ (32/46)] were significantly different (t= 5.434, P＜0.05; x2 = 4.899, P＜0.05, respectively) between two groups.ConclusionsIschemic postconditioning may reduce myocardial reperfusion injury in elderly patients with STEMI undergoing emergent PCI.