title: Remote ischemia conditioning-an endogenous cardioprotective strategy from outside the heart.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A general review was made of studies involving: (1) The experimental evidence of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) and relative clinical studies, (2) The experimental and clinical evidences of remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPOC), (3) The potential mechanistic pathways underlying their protective effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data used in this review were mainly from manuscripts listed in PubMed that were published in English from 1986 to 2010. The search terms were "myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury", "ischemia preconditioning", "ischemia postconditioning", "remote preconditioning" and "remote postconditioning".
  
  
  METHODS
  (1) Clinical and experimental evidence that both RIPC and RIPOC produce preservation of ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) of myocardium and other organs, (2) Studies related to the potential mechanisms, by which remote ischemic conditioning protects myocardium against IRI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both RIPC and RIOPC have been shown to attenuate myocardial IRI in laboratory animals. Also, their cardioprotective effects have appeared in some clinical studies. Except the external, the detailed internal mechanisms of remote ischemic conditioning have been generally described. Through these descriptions better protocols can be developed to provide improved cardioprotective procedures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Remote ischemic conditioning is an endogenous cardioprotective mechanism from outside the heart that protects against myocardial IRI and represents a general form of inter-organ protection. Remote ischemic conditioning may have an immense impact on clinical practice in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100144, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Fu-shan
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Yu-jing
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian-hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D019157:Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial / Q000379:methods*; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000517:prevention & control