CardioExchange Archive

January 9th, 2014

Pivotal Renal Denervation Trial Fails to Show Efficacy

Larry Husten, PHD

Medtronic announced today that the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial of its much-anticipated  renal denervation device had failed to meet its primary efficacy endpoint. Renal denervation has been widely touted as a breakthrough product that could dramatically lower blood pressure by as much as 30 mm Hg, allowing physicians to cure the most severe form of high blood pressure, resistant hypertension. “SYMPLICITY […]

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September 16th, 2013

Realistic Expectations for Renal Denervation

Larry Husten, PHD

Early trials of renal denervation have resulted in extremely impressive drops in systolic blood pressure approximating 30 mm Hg. These results have sparked a great deal of excitement in the hypertension community and stirred the interest of a multitude of medical device companies. Some experts have proclaimed renal denervation a potential “cure” for resistant hypertension, […]

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September 3rd, 2013

Renal Denervation: The Next Magic Bullet?

M. Louis Handoko, MD PhD

Hypertension, diabetes, acute and chronic heart failure, worsening of renal function, obstructive sleep apnea…. A CardioExchange Fellow reacts to a session on new potential indications for this treatment modality.

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February 18th, 2013

St. Jude Raises the Stakes in Renal Denervation with an Outcomes Study

Larry Husten, PHD

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 in the field and demonstrated a new level of commitment to the innovative new technology. For the past few years […]

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January 22nd, 2013

Renal Denervation: Delineating Its Uses, Misuses, and Possibilities

Murray David Esler, MBBS PhD and John Ryan, MD

Is Renal Denervation a cure? A likely overused “magic bullet” in patients who should receive more behavior modification and drug treatment? Where exactly should it fit in our arsenal? John Ryan interviews Murray David Esler

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December 20th, 2012

Is “Zapping the Kidneys” Miraculous?

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

Renal denervation for resistant hypertension is generating a lot of excitement. In this blog, Rick Lange and David Hillis take stock of the evidence and the efforts underway to explore the potential scope of indications for the procedure.

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December 18th, 2012

Promising One-Year Results for Renal Denervation in Resistant Hypertension

Larry Husten, PHD

Denervation of the renal sympathetic nerve may become an important new tool in the fight against resistant hypertension.  Previously, the main results of the Symplicity HTN-2 trial demonstrated that in selected patients renal denervation resulted in a large and highly significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (BP) at six months. Now, longer followup from the trial, published in Circulation, […]

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September 12th, 2012

Study Predicts Renal Denervation Will Be Cost-Effective in Resistant Hypertension

Larry Husten, PHD

Renal denervation (RDN) for resistant hypertension may be cost-effective and may provide long-term clinical benefits, according to a new analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Benjamin Geisler and colleagues developed a model to predict the impact of the Medtronic Symplicity RDN system in patients with resistant hypertension. Over 10 years, according to […]

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November 22nd, 2010

Treating Resistant Hypertension: Singe – Don’t Stent – The Renal Artery

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA

For years, interventional cardiologists (and radiologists) have been stenting renal arterial stenoses in patients with resistant hypertension, despite evidence that doing so does not lower blood pressure.  It appears we had the right organ (the kidney), but we’ve been doing the wrong procedure. We should have been delivering a singe, not a stent. Advances in endovascular catheter technology […]

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