Aims: This study investigated the safety and efficacy of remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) on ameliorating the sequelae of ischemic moyamoya disease (iMMD).
Methods: A total of 30 iMMD patients underwent long-term RIC and were followed up at 0.5, 1, and 2 years for clinical outcomes, including frequency of stroke recurrence, Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) scale, peak systolic velocities (PSV), and cerebral perfusion.
Results: During the whole RIC treatment process, no RIC-related adverse event occurred. Only one of 30 patients suffered a onetime infarction (3.3%), and the ratios of acceptable PGIC were 88.2%, 64.3%, and 92.3% at 0.5, 1, and 2 years follow-up. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed the frequency of stroke recurrence was significantly reduced after RIC (P = .013). The frequency of TIA per week was 1.1 (0.6, 2.8) prior to RIC and 0.1 (0.0, 0.5) post-RIC (P < .01). Compared to baseline, PSV values were significantly reduced after RIC treatment (P = .002 at 0.5, P = .331 at 1, and P = .006 at 2 years). In patients undergoing perfusion studies, 75% obtained improvement on followed-up SPECT and 95% on followed-up PET maps.
Conclusions: Remote ischemic conditioning may be beneficial on controlling iMMD-induced ischemic events, relieving symptoms, and improving cerebral perfusion, without incidence of complications in this case series.
Keywords: moyamoya disease; remote ischemic conditioning; stroke; treatment.
© 2019 The Authors. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.