renal denervation « CardioBrief

The already hot field of renal denervation for resistant hypertension just got a little hotter. With the announcement of a clinical trial powered to detect improvements in cardiovascular outcomes, St. Jude Medical has raised the stakes.

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“To date, the renal denervation studies that have been conducted only looked at reducing blood pressure in patients with uncontrolled or resistant hypertension,” said Michael Böhm, a principal investigator for the trial, in a St. Jude press release. “What we need to know is if this minimally invasive approach for treating hypertension also correlates to a reduction in major cardiac events such as heart attack, stroke and death, which are the primary risks for patients whose blood pressure is not well controlled.”

Click here to read the entire post on Forbes.

St Jude EngligHTN Rendal Denervation System

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Over on CardioExchange, Murray Essler, the chief investigator of the Symplicity HTN-2 trial, answers questions from John Ryan about renal denervation:

Non-pharmacologic antihypertensive measures must remain the starting point for patients with hypertension, but will often not be enough. Renal denervation should be reserved for patients in whom behavior modification combined with adequate and skillful antihypertensive drug prescribing cannot achieve BP reduction to target. There are no clinical trial data to support renal denervation in hypertension outside of this setting. In countries where the “genie is out of the bottle”, and clinical use is authorized, prevention of overuse will be difficult. In some instances government regulations will confine the use of renal denervation to drug-resistant hypertension. Insurer or governmental reimbursement rules should be framed to prevent overuse.

Click here to read the entire CardioExchange interview.