Procedure studied that could control blood pressure without medicine - Bloomington Pantagraph

BLOOMINGTON '� High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a condition in which the force of the blood against artery walls is high enough that it could cause health problems. The more blood that is pumped and the narrower the arteries, the higher the blood pressure.

High blood pressure can lead to life-threatening complications, including stroke and heart attack, said Dr. Nilesh Goswami, interventional cardiologist with Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants in Springfield.

'This is a very prevalent problem in the United States,' Goswami said. About 30 percent of Americans have high blood pressure and about 10 percent have resistant hypertension, meaning they have high blood pressure that isn't controlled with medicine.

For those people, any type of nonmedicine treatment could prove valuable.

But non-medicine treatment could be valuable even to people whose high blood pressure may be controlled with multiple medicines because some people don't take their medicine all the time.

'Medicine compliance is an issue,' Goswami said. Not everyone with high blood pressure is willing to take several medicines a day for the rest of their lives.

The kidney is one organ that regulates blood pressure. Renal nerves communicate information back and forth between the kidney and the brain. In people with hypertension, renal nerves are hyperactive, which raises blood pressure.

The renal denervation procedure being studied in the Symplicity HTN-3 trial attempts to deactivate hyperactive

nerves by applying brief, low-power radio frequency energy near the nerves with an experimental medical device.

According to the Symplicity trial website (www.symplifybptrial.com), a tube is inserted in the groin and the device is placed in the artery leading to the kidney. After nerves are deactivated by the radio frequency, the device is removed.

By interrupting the nerve signal, blood pressure may be lowered. Goswami and Dr. Richard Katholi are involved with the study at St. John's Hospital in Springfield.

The trial is considering for enrollment adults with resistant high blood pressure that hasn't been controlled with at least three medicines and who also have a systolic blood pressure (the top number) of 160 or higher.

Anyone who wants more information on the study may go to http://clinicaltrials.gov or the Symplicity website.

Even if the study is a success, it would be several years before renal denervation would be available to the general public. After the study and follow-up are completed, FDA would review results and determine whether to approve the procedure, Goswami said.

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