University of Freiburg researchers have designed and developed an implantable device that helps to reduce blood pressure in patients who have stopped responding to existing medical treatments.
The device has 24 electrodes attached to a micro machined cuff. It is designed to wrap around the vagal nerve. The device works by detecting signals from specific sensors "baroreceptors" (gets triggered when blood vessels expands) and sending back electric signals from the brain.
A prototype device has been successfully tested on five male rats. It lowered blood pressure by 40 per cent without any side effects. The device, 2 cm long and 0.8 mm diameter, sent back 40 pulses per second to the barorecptor fibers in the vagal nerve.
Researchers also found that the blood pressure could be easily reduced to 60 per cent of its original value through the right amount of stimulation of the vagal nerve.
"Our proof-of-concept interface has shown that it is possible to use the left vagal nerve to reduce blood pressure without any adverse side effects, which is important for a wide variety of potential treatments that could utilise nerve stimulation without actually penetrating the nerve," lead author of the research, Dr Dennis Plachta, said in a press release.
"As the device will require surgery, it is not intended to be the first port of call for treatment and will come into play when patients, for whatever reasons, are resistant to medication. Nevertheless, the long-term goal is to provide 'treatment-on-demand' for the patient, whereby the implantable device uses an intelligent circuit to record the activity of the patient, for instance when they are doing exercise, and adjust the blood pressure accordingly."
Future studies will be conducted to determine whether the device hinders any medication.
The finding is published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
