Why the study?
Does unilateral carotid body resection improve blood pressure in patients with drug-resistant hypertension?
Does unilateral carotid body resection improve blood pressure in patients with drug-resistant hypertension?
Unilateral carotid body resection is a safe and feasible procedure that may reduce blood pressure in a specific subpopulation of patients with drug-resistant hypertension.
Should not yet change practice in drug-resistant hypertension; leaves open whether carotid body resection merits randomized evaluation.
Animal and human data indicate pathological afferent signaling emanating from the carotid body that drives sympathetically mediated elevations in blood pressure in conditions of hypertension. This first-in-man, proof-of-principle study tested the safety and feasibility of unilateral carotid body resection in 15 patients with drug-resistant hypertension. The procedure proved to be safe and feasible. Overall, no change in blood pressure was found. However, 8 patients showed significant reductions in ambulatory blood pressure coinciding with decreases in sympathetic activity. The carotid body may be a novel target for treating an identifiable subpopulation of humans with hypertension.
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Narkiewicz et al. (2016) studied drug-resistant hypertension (n=15). unilateral carotid body resection was evaluated on safety, feasibility, and change in blood pressure.
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