Doctors in the UK have developed a new, non-surgical treatment that may change how we deal with a common but often missed cause of high blood pressure. The condition is called primary aldosteronism, and it is caused by small, non-cancerous lumps in the adrenal glands that produce too much of a hormone called aldosterone.
This hormone makes the body hold on to salt, raising blood pressure and putting patients at risk of serious health problems like heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure.
The new treatment, called Targeted Thermal Therapy (Triple T), was tested in a clinical study and published in The Lancet. It is a simple, fast, and safe procedure that doctors hope will become a common way to treat this condition around the world.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust, and University College London led the work, in partnership with hospitals and universities in Cambridge.
High blood pressure affects about one in three adults. Although most people think it’s caused by stress, diet, or age, about one in twenty people with high blood pressure actually have primary aldosteronism.
Sadly, fewer than 1% of them are ever diagnosed. That’s because the condition doesn’t cause obvious symptoms, and many people don’t know they have it until they suffer serious health issues.
Currently, the only cure is surgery to remove the affected adrenal gland. But surgery means general anesthesia, a hospital stay, and weeks of recovery. Because of this, many people with the condition never get treated properly. Triple T changes that.
Triple T doesn’t remove the whole gland. Instead, it uses heat to destroy only the small lump causing the hormone problem. This is done using an endoscope, a thin tube with a camera that goes down the throat into the stomach.
From there, doctors can see the adrenal gland and use a small needle to reach the lump. They then deliver a short burst of heat to kill it, leaving the rest of the gland untouched. The whole process takes just 20 minutes and requires no cuts, making it much safer and easier than surgery.
In the FABULAS study, 28 people with primary aldosteronism received the Triple T treatment. Six months later, most had normal hormone levels, and many no longer needed blood pressure medication.
One patient, Michelina Alfieri, said she had suffered years of terrible headaches before the treatment. After the procedure, she recovered immediately and returned to her daily life right away.
This progress was made possible by a new kind of scan that uses special dyes to help doctors spot the tiny lumps inside the adrenal glands. These new scans help guide the needle precisely to the lump during the Triple T procedure.
Because the trial was successful, a larger study called WAVE is now underway. This study will compare the new therapy with the standard surgical treatment, and results are expected in 2027. If the results continue to be positive, this could become a standard treatment offered in hospitals around the world.
Professor Morris Brown, one of the lead researchers, said this could finally make it possible to diagnose and treat the many people with this hidden condition. Professor Mark Gurnell added that better diagnosis and treatment could reduce long-term medication use and lower the risk of heart and kidney problems.
This breakthrough could help millions of people who don’t know they have primary aldosteronism. With this new method, doctors may finally be able to treat a major cause of high blood pressure quickly, safely, and without surgery.
The study shows that Triple T is a safe and promising treatment for primary aldosteronism. It avoids the need for surgery, offers fast recovery, and may even allow many patients to stop taking blood pressure medicine.
With more research on the way, especially the larger WAVE trial, this could become a major change in how doctors manage high blood pressure. If confirmed, Triple T could help diagnose and cure many people who are currently left undiagnosed or untreated. It’s an exciting step toward more personalized and effective care for a widespread health issue.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about unhealthy habits that could increase high blood pressure risk, and eating eggs in a healthy diet may reduce risks of diabetes, high blood pressure.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and results showing 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
The research findings can be found in The Lancet.
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