Remote Ischemic Preconditioning for Prevention of Contrast-Induced Acute Kidney Injury in Patients of CKD Stage III and IV Undergoing Elective Coronary Angiography: A Randomized Controlled Trial

INTRODUCTION: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is a serious complication of coronary angiography (CA). The aim of this randomized, parallel group, single blind, sham-controlled trial was to assess the safety and efficacy of the remote ischemic preconditioning on the prevention of CI-AKI. METHODS: Patients of 18–80 years of age with CKD 3 and 4, who were admitted for elective coronary angiography in a tertiary care hospital in eastern India were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to standard care with ischemic preconditioning (n = 45; intermittent arm ischemia through 4 cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of a blood pressure cuff) or with standard care and sham ischemic preconditioning (n = 42). Overall, both study groups were at moderate risk of developing CI-AKI according to the Mehran risk score. The primary endpoint was the incidence of CI-AKI, defined as an increase in serum creatinine ≥25% or ≥0.5 mg/dL above baseline at 48 h after contrast medium exposure. RESULTS: CI-AKI occurred in 8 patients (19.04%) in the control group and 2 (4.4%) in the remote ischemic preconditioning group (odds ratio, 0.198, 95% confidence interval, 0.087 to 0.452; P = 0.04). No major adverse events were related to remote ischemic preconditioning. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that remote ischemic preconditioning is a simple and well-tolerated procedure, which reduces the incidence of CI-AKI in CKD 3 and 4 patients undergoing coronary angiography.