Washington, August 28 (ANI): Renal denervation has been found to be effective in treating patients with resistant hypertension, a condition that greatly increases the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke.

Resistant hypertension puts approximately 120 million people worldwide at risk of premature death from kidney disease and cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack and heart failure.

But transcatheter renal denervation, which is popular for being minimally invasive, has shown promising results in arresting the condition. The procedure also reduces the blood pressure levels in such patients.

The Symplicity Hypertension I and II studies have suggested that this procedure significantly lowers blood pressure in these patients with few remaining options in terms of treatment, Dr Mylotte said.

The investigators evaluated the effect of this novel therapy in a group of patients with resistant hypertension in their own clinical practices.

Out of 35 patients, who were chosen for the procedure, 36.5 percent were female, 36.4 percent were diabetic, and 15.2 percent had kidney dysfunction.

It was also found that these people suffered from high blood pressure levels despite being on medications.

After the procedure was performed successfully upon 33 out of 35 patients, they were called for regular check-ups at 6 months.

The researchers found that the BP levels were significantly controlled Similarly, even ambulatory BP was reduced. Besides this there were no adverse events such as death, myocardial infarction, or stroke during follow-up. The patients also did not show any deterioration in renal function.

Transcatheter renal denervation is a safe and efficacious treatment, which results in significant reductions in blood pressure in real world patients with treatment resistant hypertension, Dr Mylotte said.

Although longer-term results are required, renal denervation should be considered for all patients with treatment resistant hypertension, as it is likely to lower their blood pressure and reduce their chances of myocardial infarction and stroke, he added. (ANI)