Radio waves to zap your high blood pressure
Treatment could be permanent cure
A RADICAL therapy that zaps the kidneys with radio waves could provide a permanent cure for high blood pressure, research shows.
The procedure may be available to patients as early as next year after trials showed it produced dramatic improvements in the condition.
The breakthrough could bring hope to the thousands of patients who do not respond to drugs.
It is estimated that around 10 per cent of Irish people will be diagnosed with high blood pressure at some point during their lives. The condition is a risk factor in heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.
Changes in lifestyle, such as cutting back on salt and alcohol and exercising, can control blood pressure and there are a number of drug treatments available.
But despite advances in medication, some people appear to be immune to current treatments.
Now medics hope that the new procedure will help bring down persistently high readings in this group of patients.
Professor Mark Caulfield, who has been involved in trials of the technique – known as renal denervation – said: ‘It could make a profound difference to a significant minority of high-risk patients.’
The technique uses a burst of radio frequency energy delivered through a catheter to knock out a number of tiny nerves that run in the lining of the arteries of the kidney. High blood pressure is sometimes caused by faulty signals from the brain to these nerves. Latest findings from a trial show reductions in blood pressure persist for at least 18 months after treatment. So far, trials have shown no ill-effects.
A high blood pressure reading is one that exceeds 140/90 millimetres of mercury. The latest trial involved more than 100 patients who had blood pressure readings of at least 178/97, despite taking three or more different drugs.
After 18 months, those having the procedure maintained a reduction of between 28/11 to 32/12.
Dr Murray Esler, of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute of Melbourne, Australia, presented the findings at the European Cardiology Congress in Munich.
He said: ‘We are encouraged to see renal denervation shows substantial and sustained reduction in treatment-resistant patients.’
Although blood pressure does not sink to normal levels after treatment, it cuts the health risks of very high pressure.
Professor Caulfield, of the William Harvey Research Institute at Queen Mary College, London warned that the procedure does not work in all patients and Professor Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation said it would only be used in those who had tried a range of drugs without success.