Most hypertension patients would consider undergoing an interventional procedure such as renal denervation if it led to considerable improvements in their blood pressure, according to new research presented Nov. 4 at TCT 2021.
The study’s authors surveyed 400 patients with high blood pressure who were already taking one to three anti-hypertensive medications, tracking their opinions on potentially being treated with the Medtronic Symplicity Renal Denervation System.
Overall, 76.5% of patients said they would be willing to undergo such an interventional procedure if it led to a reduction in office-based systolic blood pressure of approximately 10 mmHg. In addition, 24.3% of patients said they would consider such an approach if it led to reductions in office-based blood pressure of 5 mmHg.
Nearly 7% of patients, meanwhile, said they would consider such an approach in exchange for reductions of 2.5 mmHg—this was viewed as the minimal acceptable benefit by researchers.
Also, the authors reported, the average patient is willing to undergo a procedure with a 20% risk of adverse events such as vascular injury or drug side effects in exchange for improved blood pressure.
“This novel, patient preference study is particularly valuable for a new procedure like renal denervation, because it demonstrates that for patients, lowering blood pressure, even by a small amount, is meaningful,” Michael A. Weber, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine at State University of New York, said in a statement. “For the first time, these results give us quantitative insights into hypertension treatment preferences—importantly, patients are very open to considering a medical intervention procedure, such as RDN, with demonstrated improvements in the control of their high blood pressure.”
“Patient preference data will be important to help physicians understand patients' acceptable benefits and risks related to minimally invasive procedures for the treatment of hypertension,” added Jason Weidman, senior vice president and president of the coronary and renal denervation business at Medtronic.
Weber did disclose that he had a financial relationship with Medtronic.
More information on TCT 2021 is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.