Keeping blood pressure under control is critical. For patients who have been unable to successfully maintain that control, there is a new, cutting-edge surgical procedure available at The Heart Center at St. Mark’s Hospital called Renal Denervation that may help.
To understand how the procedure works, it is important to know that kidneys help regulate blood pressure. Renal denervation disrupts overactive renal nerves which cause high blood pressure.
In order to perform the procedure, a surgeon threads a small catheter through blood vessels from the femoral artery to reach the kidneys and then beam in ultrasound or radiofrequency energy. Those pulses pass through the renal arteries to selectively target surrounding nerves. The procedure lowers blood pressure, thereby decreasing a patient’s risk of heart attack and stroke.
Dr. Vamsee Yaganti – an Interventional Cardiologist at St. Mark’s Hospital and the medical director overseeing the structural cardiology program at MountainStar Healthcare – joined FOX13’s The PLACE Tuesday to shed light on the new procedure. He is one of the only surgeons in Utah performing renal denervation.
“Hypertension is a nationwide health epidemic,” Dr. Yaganti said. “Renal denervation is a minimally invasive treatment option to treat high blood pressure. The procedure is just one more advancement in our innovative care system at MountainStar Healthcare as we continue to evolve our cardiac capabilities for the benefit of our patients.”
About half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure. It comes with a serious risk for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and even dementia. Many people don’t even realize they have hypertension until it’s done serious damage to their body.
What is hypertension?
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a serious medical condition that can lead to health complications over time, even though symptoms are rarely, if ever, present. It’s why the condition has a third name: The Silent Killer.
High blood pressure occurs when the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is too high.
Two numbers describe blood pressure. The top “systolic” pressure, is the force blood puts on the walls of arteries as its pumped out of the heart. The bottom “diastolic” number measures that same pressure but between heartbeats.
Normal blood pressure is less than 120 over 80. Blood pressure naturally fluctuates throughout the day. It is higher when you’re physically active or stressed. However, when it stays high — consistently 130 over 80 or higher, according to most recent guidelines — it stiffens arteries and makes the heart work harder.
· Normal blood pressure: Less than 120/80 mmHg.
· Elevated blood pressure: Between 120-129 systolic and less than 80 diastolic.
· Stage 1 hypertension: 130-139 systolic or 80-89 diastolic.
· Stage 2 hypertension: 140 or higher systolic or 90 or higher diastolic.
“It’s so important to know your blood pressure numbers,” Dr. Yaganti added.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hypertension impacts more than a billion adults worldwide, and is the leading modifiable cause of heart attack, stroke, and death. Nearly 80% of adults with hypertension do not have it under control and half of hypertension patients become non-adherent to medication within one year.
Factors that increase the risk of having high blood pressure include:
· older age
· genetics
· being overweight or obese
· not being physically active
· high-salt diet
· drinking too much alcohol
Lifestyle changes like eating a healthier diet, quitting tobacco and being more active can help lower blood pressure.
“Sometimes combating high blood pressure is about making simply lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, sometimes it’s with medications. But other times, it’s with cutting-edge technology like renal denervation,” explained Dr. Yaganti.
Dr. Yaganti says at this time, the procedure is not for everyone, but it is important to take a patient’s quality of life into consideration.
“For the people who are taking three or more blood pressure pills daily and your blood pressure is still uncontrolled, you qualify for renal denervation,” he added.
Cardiovascular Services
The Heart Center at St. Mark’s offers a variety of services for people with heart conditions. The center’s highly trained team of cardiologists are experts in treating coronary artery disease, hypertension, congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias. The center provides this care as an accredited Chest Pain Center.
The Heart Center at St. Mark's offers cardiovascular consults within 24 hours. For immediate access for appointments and provider questions, call (801) 288-4400.
The Heart Center at St. Mark’s Hospital
1160 East 3900 South Suite 2000
Salt Lake City, UT 84124
For more information, visit StMarksHeart.com or call (801) 266-3418.
About Dr. Vamsee M. Yaganti
Vamsee Yaganti, MD, is board certified in Interventional Cardiology, General Cardiology, Nuclear Cardiology, Echocardiography and RPVI. Dr. Yaganti's extensive training in cardiovascular medicine gives him an opportunity to take care of patients with a broad array of cardiac problems.
After completing medical school training at Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India; Dr. Yaganti came to the United States to pursue a Masters in Microbiology at the University of Kansas. He went on to complete his Internal Medicine training at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, followed by the pursuit of a Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Yaganti completed a one-year Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at Lankenau Medical Center in Philadelphia, followed by a Structural Heart Disease Fellowship at the same hospital.
Dr. Yaganti joined The Heart Center at St. Mark's Hospital in August 2016. As the Director of the Structural Heart Program at St. Mark's, he was instrumental in starting LAAO and Mitraclip programs. Under his leadership, the hospital performed its first mitral valve-in valve TAVR procedure and Utah's first percutaneous trans-axillary TAVR procedure. In recognition of his achievements, he received the Healthcare Heroes Innovation Award in 2018 by Utah Business Magazine.
St. Mark’s Hospital is one of eight MountainStar Healthcare hospitals in Utah.
