Fig 1.
Study schedule.
Fig 2.
The setup for the remote ischemic conditioning delivery in the arm muscles.
The tissue reflectance sensor is placed over the forearm and covered with an opaque cloth band for better-quality data acquisition and holding the sensor in place. The processor transmits the data in real time with a ZigBee protocol, with a mini-tower connected to the laptop for power. The dashboard synchronizes the data from the BP device and tissue reflectance sensor to display in real time.
Fig 3.
Systolic blood pressure (SBP), blood concentration (BloodConc), and blood oxygenation changes (Ox1 and Ox 2) during a remote ischemic conditioning therapy session with 5 cycles in the intervention arm and sham arm.
Intervention Arm: The SBP (blue) was maintained at 180 mmHg for the initial two cycles and 150 mmHg for the remaining three cycles. The BloodConc (orange) increases with inflation and decreases with deflation. Ox1 and Ox2 (gray and yellow) decrease with inflation and bounces back with deflation. There is transient reactive hyperemia (increase in Ox1 and Ox2) corresponding to the early phase of deflation. There was no apparent change noted in the BloodConc, Ox1 and Ox2 after the change in the blood pressure from 180 mmHg to 150 mmHg. Sham Arm: the SBP was maintained at 30 mmHg for the five cycles. The BloodConc, Ox1 and Ox2 change inconsistently.