High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, raises the risk for health complications such as strokes, vision loss, dementia, and coronary artery disease.
Some patients with hypertension do not respond to conventional medication treatments.
One alternative technique, renal denervation, involves destroying nerves in blood vessels near the kidneys using radio wave pulses, which may help lower blood pressure.
The Trial
A team of researchers from Germany, the U.S., and Japan carried out a three-year trial to assess the long-term efficacy and safety of the SPYRAL HTN-ON MED renal denervation procedure.
The trial involved 80 volunteers who had hypertension unresponsive to standard medications.
Thirty-eight of these participants underwent the SPYRAL HTN-ON MED renal denervation procedure, while the remaining 42 received a placebo procedure and served as the control group.
All participants continued to take hypertension medication and were monitored over the subsequent three years.
Findings
The researchers found that participants who underwent the renal denervation procedure experienced an 18.7 mm Hg reduction in systolic ambulatory blood pressure over 24 hours, compared to just an 8.6 mm Hg reduction in the control group.
For office systolic blood pressure, there was a 20.9 mm Hg reduction in the treatment group versus a 12.5 mm Hg reduction in the control group.
The researchers concluded that the results showed a “clinically meaningful and lasting blood pressure reduction.”
Implications and Next Steps
These results present a promising alternative for patients with hypertension who do not respond to conventional medications.
More extensive studies may be required to confirm the procedure’s long-term safety and efficacy, and to determine which patient subgroups might benefit most from this procedure.
The findings were published in The Lancet and presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session.
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The study was published in The Lancet.
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