Remote Ischemic Conditioning for Reducing Stroke Risk of Symptomatic Vertebrobasilar Lesion of Atherosclerosis

Exclusion criteria

• ✕. Thrombolytic therapy within 24 hours prior to enrollment.
• ✕. Progressive neurological signs within 24 hours prior to enrollment.
• ✕. Cerebral venous thrombosis/stenosis.
• ✕. vertebrobasilar lesions due to arterial dissection, Moya Moya disease; any known vasculitic disease; herpes zoster, varicella zoster or other viral vasculopathy; neurosyphilis; any other infection; any artery stenosis associated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis; radiation induced vasculopathy; fibromuscular dysplasia; sickle cell disease; neurofibromatosis; benign angiopathy of central nervous system; post-partum angiopathy; suspected vasospastic process, suspected recanalized embolus.
• ✕. Any of the following unequivocal cardiac source of embolism: rheumatic mitral and or aortic stenosis, prosthetic heart valves, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, sick sinus syndrome, left atrial myxoma, patent foramen ovale, left ventricular mural thrombus or valvular vegetation, congestive heart failure, bacterial endocarditis, or any other cardiovascular condition interfering with the participation.
• ✕. Uncontrolled severe hypertension \[sitting systolic blood pressure (SBP) \>180 mmHg and/or sitting diastolic blood pressure (DBP) \>110 mmHg after medication\].
• ✕. Patients with serious complications or abnormal laboratory parameters: aspartate transaminase (AST) and/or alanine transaminase (ALT) \>3×upper limit of normal range; creatinine clearance \<0.6 ml/s and/or serum creatinine \>265 μmol/l (\>3.0 mg/dl); platelets \<100×109/L.
• ✕. Any intracranial hemorrhage (parenchymal, subarachnoid, subdural, epidural) within 90 days prior to enrollment.