Researchers at Columbia University and the Université de Paris in France discovered a machine that can soothe nerves in the kidneys. According to their study, this device helped middle-aged people with high blood pressure lower their stress levels during the day. On average, their daily blood pressure readings went down by 8.5 points after using this machine.
When a person has high blood pressure (also called hypertension), doctors usually tell them to make changes in how they live, like eating less salt and losing weight, and also give them medicine to bring down their numbers. But, even when people do all these things, one-third of them still can’t manage their blood pressure.
Doctor Ajay Kirtane from Columbia University says many of the patients they are taking care of have blood pressure that is too high even after trying to control it. If you let this high blood pressure stay uncontrolled for a long time, it can cause severe problems like heart failure, strokes, heart attacks, and damage to your kidneys which cannot be reversed.
Doctor Kirtane says that people with uncontrolled blood pressure after trying different lifestyle changes and medicine should get a renal ultrasound done before anything bad happens. Doctor Kirtane is an expert in the field of interventional cardiology and he works at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Scientists recently did a study and published their results in the JAMA Cardiology magazine. This study tested a device that is used during an outpatient procedure called “renal denervation”. However, this device has not been approved yet by the FDA for use outside of clinical trials.
Lowering High Blood Pressure with Ultrasound Therapy
In middle age, hypertension may be caused by nerves in the kidneys that hold on to too much water and sodium and make hormones that might increase blood pressure. (In older people, thickening of the blood vessels can lead to high blood pressure.) To lower blood pressure, there are medicines such as those that make the blood vessels bigger, remove extra fluid in your body, or stop hormones from increasing your blood pressure. However, none of these drugs act straight on the nerves in the kidneys.
Doctors use ultrasound therapy to help reduce high blood pressure caused by overactive nerves in the renal artery. To do this, they’ll insert a narrow tube (catheter) into either your wrist or leg and guide it to your kidney.
Twice as Many Hit Target Blood Pressure with Soundwave Therapy
Researchers looked into the data from three trials with over 500 middle-aged people who had different levels of high blood pressure and were taking medicine for it. They found that twice as many people who got special soundwave therapy managed to reach their goal of having less than 135/85 mmHg daytime blood pressure compared to those in the control groups.
The studies showed that this device can help to lower the blood pressure for people of all ages. The results were similar, so the procedure was considered safe. People who tried it had improved blood pressure after one month, but it still needs to be checked by a special organization called FDA in the months ahead.
Reducing High Blood Pressure with Ultrasound Renal Denervation
Scientists think this treatment could help people with high blood pressure that cannot be managed by medication or lifestyle changes. They plan to suggest this device first to patients who have already used other methods of treatment. By controlling their blood pressure, doctors hope they can stop any kidney damage that is caused by unmanaged high blood pressure.
A group of doctors, called the RADIANCE Investigators and Collaborators, did a study to test how well ultrasound renal denervation works in certain situations. This research was shared on February 28th, 2023 in JAMA Cardiology and helped scientific progress.
ReCor Medical funded a study that used data from the RADIANCE II trial. The trial was co-led by Kirtane, and the results were published in JAMA.
