Renal Denervation Technology From St Jude Medical, Inc. Demonstrates Reduction In Blood Pressure

St Jude Medical, Inc. announced that preliminary data demonstrated the Company’s EnligHTN renal denervation system was safe and effective for the treatment of resistant hypertension. The study demonstrated that on average patients with resistant hypertension experience a systolic blood pressure reduction of 28 points after 30 days. Renal denervation is a specialized ablation procedure that has been clinically proven to reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension that is resistant to medical therapy. A typical normal blood pressure is below 120 systolic (the first number) and 80 diastolic (the second number), and is expressed as 120/80 mmHg. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a blood pressure greater than 140/90 mmHg. Patients that enrolled in the trial had an average of 176 / 96 mmHg baseline blood pressure despite being on multiple medications to help control blood pressure. Results from other clinical trials for competitive technologies studying the safety and efficacy of renal denervation demonstrated that results improve over time. After 30 days, a 14 point reduction in systolic blood pressure was noted in a competitor’s study, but this number improved to a reduction of 27 points of systolic blood pressure after one year. Compared to this competitive technology, the average 30-day results from the EnligHTN renal denervation trial showed double the reduction in blood pressure at 30 days.