Objective To investigate the cerebral protection effect of remote ischemia preconditioning training (RIPC) in ischemic stroke (IS) patients. Methods Eighty-six IS patients were randomly divided into a control group or an RIPC group, with 43 patients in each group. The control group was treated with routine therapy, based on which the RIPC group was treated with RIPC additionally, and both groups were treated for 6 months. The efficacy, degree of neurological deficit, cerebral infarction volume, upper extremity function, serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level, and serum nerve growth factor (NGF) level were compared between the two groups. Results After 6 months of treatment, the overall effective rate of the RIPC group was higher than that of the control group (P＜0.05). Before treatment, there was no statistically significant difference in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, cerebral infarction volume, Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) score, Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) score, serum NGF level, or serum BDNF level between the two groups (all P＞0.05); after 3 and 6 months of treatment, the NIHSS score and cerebral infarction volume of the RIPC group were lower/smaller than those of the control group, and the FMA-UE score, WMFT score, serum BDNF level, and serum NGF level were higher than those of the control group; there were interaction effects between grouping and time in the NIHSS score, cerebral infarction volume, FMA-UE score, WMFT score, serum BDNF level, and serum NGF level (all P＜0.05). Conclusion RIPC can up-regulate the serum BDNF and NGF expressions in IS patients, reduce neurological deficit, shrink the cerebral infarction volume, and improve the upper extremity function, which is an effective cerebral protection approach.

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