Melbourne:
Australian scientists have come up with an idea to treat high blood pressure and blood sugar by using radio waves to silence or destroy nerves in arteries supplying blood to the kidneys.
The initial reports have shown significant reduction in the blood pressures of the majority of the 50 patients who took part in the study, the co-author of the research Markus Schlaich was quoted as saying in an ABC report said in Melbourne.
"Together with an American company we have developed a catheter-based device, that actually enables us to target the renal sympathetic nerves quite specifically, which runs along the renal arteries that supply the kidneys," he said.
It has long been known that the sympathetic nervous system plays a role in controlling blood pressure and sugar levels.
"With this device we can target these nerves coming from the inner side of the blood vessels, emitting energy into the tissue which kind of silences or destroys the nerves in the vessel wall, which then leads to a substantial reduction in blood pressure," Schlaich said, adding this is the first treatment targeting those nerves that has proven both safe and effective.
"I really felt as if something or someone had pushed the fast forward button," said 65-year-old Gael Lander, who had suffered from high blood pressure and been living with the constant fear of heart attack or stroke.
She said her life has changed because of the new procedure due to which her blood pressure went from as high as 210 over 70, down to 140 over 70.
"Everything raced for example, my heart and I did not quite know what a feeling of calmness was, or just being in a state of relaxation," she said, adding also I am diabetic and my blood sugar level has dropped by 20 to 30 per cent over a period of two years with the use of this procedure.
However, Schlaich said the procedure is not a cure.
"All of these patients were on quite a few drugs which did not really work, and we did this procedure but we did not necessarily reach normal blood pressure in all of these patients," he said.
"So we still want them to be on their drugs in order to get the blood pressure as low as possible; the reason for that is that we know in general the lower the blood pressure, the lower the risk for cardio-vascular events. And of course we want to protect them as much as possible" he said.
Further trials will be conducted and if successful, researchers said the procedure could be widely available within three years.