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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : May 9, 2014 1:26 PM IST
Washington: Researchers in Germany have created an implantable device that reduces blood pressure by sending electrical signals to the brain. The device has successfully reduced the blood pressure in rats by 40 percent without any major side effects, and could offer hope for a significant proportion of patients worldwide who do not respond to existing medical treatment for the condition.
The device consists of 24 individual electrodes that are integrated into a micro-machined cuff. It is designed to wrap around the vagal nerve, which extends from the brainstem to the thorax and abdomen, supplying and stimulating various major organs including the heart and major blood vessels. The device works by picking up signals from specific sensors, known as baroreceptors, which are activated when blood vessels stretch. Some baroreceptors are grouped together in concentrated areas in the aortic arch and report their information to the brainstem via fibres in the vagal nerve. These baroreceptors function to control short-term fluctuations in blood pressure. (Read: Gallery: Why is hypertension dangerous)
The device has been designed to identify only those fibres that influence the blood pressure and avoid those that are responsible for heart rate, the power of heart beat, ventilation and other vital functions. The results have been published in IOP Publishing's Journal of Neural Engineering. (Read: Herbal remedies for hypertension (Gallery))
What is hypertension?
Hypertension is the medical terminology for high blood pressure. Blood flows through the arteries due to force that is exerted every time the heart beats to pump blood to various organs of your body. The force with which blood flows exerts pressure on the walls of the arteries. The more the pressure, the harder your heart has to work to pump blood.
Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg). 120/80 mmHg is considered as the normal reading for blood pressure, where 120 is the pressure when the heart beats to pump out blood (systolic pressure) and 80 is the pressure when the heart rests between beats (diastolic pressure). A person is said to have hypertension when the blood pressure readings are 140/90 mmHg or higher.
Hypertension is one of the most common chronic conditions that can lead to several other health problems in the presence of contributing factors like genetics, obesity or high cholesterol levels. These factors further increase the resistance of blood flow through the arteries and cause high BP. Elevated blood pressure is linked to a variety of diseases like coronary artery diseases, stroke, kidney diseases, vision loss and erectile dysfunction. Hypertension can be curtailed by changes like exercising more, eating right and reducing stressapart from taking anti-hypertensive drugs. (Read: 5 hypertension symptoms you should know)
With inputs from ANI
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