Skip to content | Change text size
 

World-first blood pressure treatment success

22 April 2009

artery and catheter
 

A world-first treatment for high blood pressure has been successfully trialled in Melbourne.

The clinical trial, which included 50 patients from Australia and overseas, found there was a dramatic improvement in the blood pressure of participants who were given a new catheter-based surgical treatment.

The results are set to revolutionise high blood pressure treatment in patients around the world.

Director of the Monash Centre of Cardiovascular Research and Education in Therapeutics Professor Henry Krum and co-principal investigator Rob Whitbourn from St Vincent's Hospital led a team from Monash, the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and St Vincent's Hospital to develop the new surgical technique.

Professor Krum said the treatment would benefit the 5 to 20 per cent of patients with high blood pressure who do not respond to medication.

"Patients who underwent the procedure had a significant reduction in their blood pressure levels and are therefore at a reduced risk of severe stroke or heart attack," Professor Krum said.

Professor Krum said the trial results were the most significant in the treatment of high blood pressure since the introduction of the drugs that are in wide use today.

"Reduction of blood pressure was evident as early as one month, was further reduced at three months, and persisted through subsequent assessments," Professor Krum said.

The procedure is carried out under local anaesthetic and uses radio energy frequency, delivered to the targeted nerve area via catheter. As a result the nerves are silenced in the renal artery, which supplies blood to the kidneys.

Researchers had long-believed that this region was a key regulator of blood pressure, but until these trial results the theory had not been successfully tested.

"The catheter allowed us to target a very specific area to deliver the right amount of frequency to the nerves without damaging the surrounding areas," Professor Krum said.