SAN LEANDRO, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ — Preclinical data
of a novel therapy designed to treat drug-resistant hypertension
(high blood pressure) was presented Tuesday, September 21st, at the
Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2010 Conference in
Washington, DC, by Christopher D. Owens, MD, MSc, Assistant
Professor in Residence, Division of Vascular and Endovascular
Surgery, University of California, San Francisco. The therapy
pioneered by Mercator MedSystems, Inc., combines the use of the
company’s Bullfrog® Micro-Infusion Catheter with a known drug
to reduce the hyperactivity of nerves in the renal artery leading
to and from the kidney. These nerves are implicated in the
initiation and maintenance of high blood pressure. The early data
shows that this therapy precisely targets these nerves, achieving
the desired effect without negatively affecting surrounding tissue.
Dr. Owens observed, “While these data are early, the site-specific
delivery of drugs directly to the nerves in question offers great
promise for a new approach in treating the nearly one-third of 73
million U.S. hypertensive patients who cannot control their blood
pressure with medication alone.”
The company believes the procedure will take less than an hour
in an outpatient setting. In it, the slender Micro-Infusion
Catheter is introduced into an artery through a small needle in the
upper leg, and is guided into the main kidney artery (the renal
artery). Once positioned, a balloon at the tip of the catheter is
inflated inside the artery, sliding a 130 micron (two hair widths
thick) microneedle through the artery wall into the tissue known as
the adventitia, which envelops the hyperactive nerves leading to
the kidney. As the drug is infused through the microneedle, it
surrounds the artery to create an effective cylindrical treatment
zone and reduces the nerve signals which cause high blood
pressure.
The company plans to initiate human investigational trials of
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