Patients with chronic kidney disease who experience acute myocardial infarction might benefit from ischemic conditioning strategies, suggest researchers. Byrne et al. found that animals with uremia sustained larger myocardial infarctions than nonuremic animals, but conditioning strategies (ischemic preconditioning, remote ischemic preconditioning and postconditioning) significantly reduced myocardial infarct size. Components of the RISK and SAFE pathways were implicated in mediating this cardioprotection.