The use of adenosine as a trigger for pharmacological preconditioning to protect human myocardium during coronary bypass surgery

Introduction: In former studies on ischaemic preconditioning, adenosine was found to trigger this cardioprotective process. After promising experiments in rabbit hearts and the first clinical use during emergency percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in patients, we started to investigate the ability of adenosine to protect the myocardium during standard cross-clamping bypass surgery. Because adenosine is metabolized within a few seconds, no systemic effects occur.