High blood pressure is a big problem all over the world. It’s growing and it’s hard to control.
Changes in what we eat and do and taking medicine are the usual ways to control it.
But many people still have high blood pressure even with these methods. And these people have a higher chance of getting heart or kidney disease, or having a stroke.
A New Study on a New Solution
A recent study in the JAMA medical journal shows a new way to treat high blood pressure. It’s a simple procedure that’s done under the skin.
It’s like putting in a stent, a small tube that’s used to open up blocked blood vessels. The procedure is used for people whose high blood pressure can’t be controlled with medicine.
This procedure uses sound energy. It’s put into the body through a small balloon. The sound energy is used to cut off the nerves that go to the main blood vessel that takes blood to the kidney.
This procedure is called renal denervation (RDN). It’s used alone or with medicine for high blood pressure.
How the Procedure Works
The RDN procedure is simple and doesn’t need a big cut. A small tube called a catheter is put into the body through a tiny hole in the wrist or the groin.
This catheter is put into the blood vessel that goes to the kidney. Either sound energy or another type of energy called radiofrequency is sent into the tissues around this blood vessel.
This reduces the activity of the nerves and lowers the blood pressure. The catheter is removed after the procedure is done on both kidneys.
The Effectiveness of the Procedure
A big clinical trial was done on this procedure. It included 224 patients who had high blood pressure that couldn’t be controlled.
Dr. Stephen Jenkins of Ochsner Health, who helped write this study, said that this procedure gives another choice for people with high blood pressure. It reduces the activity of the nerves that cause high blood pressure.
Two earlier trials showed that this procedure lowered blood pressure in patients with mild to moderate and resistant high blood pressure.
This new, bigger trial shows that it also works for patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure.
In this latest trial, called the Radiance II trial, the procedure showed good results. Patients’ blood pressure stayed lower for two months after the procedure.
So, it could be another choice for patients to lower their blood pressure.
Consistent Results Across Studies
The results of three studies on this procedure were also published in JAMA Cardiology. These studies included data from more than 500 patients.
The results showed that the procedure consistently lowered blood pressure in a wide range of high blood pressure cases.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that drinking tea could help lower blood pressure, and early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
The study was published in JAMA.
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