Elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with troponin release in approximately one third of cases.Troponin release is a sensitive and specific marker of myocyte necrosis and infarction resulting from a form of ischemia/reperfusion injury, downstream embolization of atheromatous material, and coronary side-branch occlusion. A number of studies have demonstrated that procedure-related troponin release is associated with subsequent cardiovascular events.~Transient sublethal episodes of ischemia before a prolonged ischemia/reperfusion injury, known as ischemic preconditioning (IPC), have been shown to reduce the extent of myocardial infarction (MI).Electroacupuncture (EA) stimulus, as a pretreatment method, limits MI size in animal models. However, there are limited outcome to demonstrate protection from EA pretreatment during PCI. The present study investigated the ability of EA pretreatment to attenuate cardiac troponin I (cTnI) release after elective PCI in a single-center, randomized controlled trial.
Myocyte necrosis as a result of elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) occurs in approximately one third of cases and is associated with subsequent cardiovascular events. This study assesses the ability of electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment to attenuate cardiac troponin I (cTnI) release after elective PCI.