A novel dehydrated alcohol–based renal denervation system may effectively lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension.
Current estimates suggest that up to 70% of patients with hypertension may not be adequately managing their blood pressure. The novel technology, known as the Peregrine System, was designed to apply dehydrated alcohol to deactivate renal nerves mediating hypertension.
In a study presented by Kandzari et al at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Annual Scientific Session 2024 and simultaneously published in Circulation, researchers randomly assigned 301 patients with hypertension to receive either dehydrated alcohol–based renal denervation with the Peregrine System or a sham procedure. After a follow-up of 3 months, patients in the renal denervation group experienced average reductions in their 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure of 10 mmHg vs 6.8 mmHg among those in the sham procedure group.
Although the results were statistically significant, there were no statistically significant differences in systolic or diastolic blood pressure as measured in a doctor’s office between both groups. Further, the researchers were unable to explain the substantial decrease in blood pressure experienced in those who received the sham procedure, despite these patients not receiving additional interventions to reduce their blood pressure.
“In this trial, meaningful reductions from baseline were achieved with renal denervation across all measures, but the potential difference is muted by large declines in the control group. There are still many unanswered questions coming from this study in terms of why we [found] the results that we [did],” concluded lead study author David E. Kandzari, MD, Director of Interventional Cardiology and Chief of the Piedmont Heart Institute and Cardiovascular Service Line as well as Chief Scientific Officer at Piedmont Health Care.
