Real-world experience with ultrasound renal denervation utilizing home blood pressure monitoring: the Global Paradise System registry study design.

Background: Hypertension is a major public health issue due to its association with cardiovascular disease risk. Despite the availability of effective antihypertensive drugs, rates of blood pressure (BP) control remain suboptimal. Renal denervation (RDN) has emerged as an effective non-pharmacological, device-based treatment option for patients with hypertension.

Durability of blood pressure reduction after ultrasound renal denervation: three-year follow-up of the treatment arm of the randomised RADIANCE-HTN SOLO trial.

Background: While the blood pressure (BP)-lowering effect of renal denervation (RDN) has been established, long-term durability is a key prerequisite for a broader clinical implementation.

Aims: Our aims were to assess the long-term durability of the office BP (OBP)-lowering efficacy, antihypertensive medication (AHM) use, and safety of ultrasound RDN (uRDN).

Methods: Four weeks after withdrawal of AHM, patients with untreated daytime ambulatory BP ≥135/85 mmHg and <170/105 mmHg were randomised to uRDN (n=74) or sham (n=72) in the RADIANCE-HTN SOLO trial.

Changes in blood pressure after crossover to ultrasound renal denervation in patients initially treated with sham in the RADIANCE-HTN SOLO trial.

Background: The multicentre, randomised, sham-controlled RADIANCE-HTN SOLO trial reported the blood pressure (BP)-lowering efficacy and safety of ultrasound renal denervation (RDN) in the absence (2 months) and presence (6 and 12 months) of antihypertensive medications in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension.

Aims: The aim of this report was to evaluate patients originally assigned to the sham group who crossed over to RDN.

Methods: After the primary endpoint was met, patients in the sham arm who remained uncontrolled were allowed to cross over to receive RDN.

Prospective single-site experience with radiofrequency-targeted vertebral augmentation for osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.

Vertebral augmentation procedures are widely used to treat osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). We report our initial experience with radiofrequency-targeted vertebral augmentation (RF-TVA) in 20 patients aged 50 to 90 years with single-level, symptomatic osteoporotic VCF between T10 and L5, back pain severity > 4 on a 0 to 10 scale, Oswestry Disability Index ≥ 21%, 20% to 90% vertebral height loss compared to adjacent vertebral body, and fracture age < 6 months. After treatment, patients were followed through hospital discharge and returned for visits after 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months.

The CAPTURE registry: predictors of outcomes in carotid artery stenting with embolic protection for high surgical risk patients in the early post-approval setting.

Background: The use of carotid artery stenting with embolic protection has been practiced for over a decade in the United States, and increasingly so since carotid stenting received FDA approval in 2004. While there have been attempts at establishing predictors of outcomes in carotid artery stenting, they have generally been limited to single center experiences and/or multicenter retrospective surveys. This report examines predictors of outcomes in carotid stenting in the earliest and largest prospective multicenter neurologist-adjudicated experience in the United States post device approval.

The CAPTURE registry: analysis of strokes resulting from carotid artery stenting in the post approval setting: timing, location, severity, and type.

Background: Although previous reports of carotid stenting with embolic protection (CAS) have focused on clinical outcomes of death, stroke and myocardial infarction, there are few data available characterizing the strokes that occur during CAS, thus limiting understanding of potential mechanisms. This report examines the timing, location, severity, and type of strokes occurring with CAS in the Carotid ACCULINK/ACCUNET Post Approval Trial to Uncover Unanticipated or Rare Events (CAPTURE) study.

Methods: The CAPTURE is a prospective, multicenter registry conducted to assess outcomes of CAS in the postapproval setting after device approval.

The CAPTURE registry: results of carotid stenting with embolic protection in the post approval setting.

Background: Pivotal study data examining carotid stenting with embolic protection as a less invasive alternative to endarterectomy for high surgical risk patients have been acquired under controlled conditions with highly selected physicians and hospitals. This report examines outcomes of carotid stenting post-approval after diffusion of this technology to a broader cross-section of physicians and hospitals.

Methods: The Carotid Acculink/Accunet Post-Approval Trial to Uncover Unanticipated or Rare Events (CAPTURE) is a prospective, multi-center registry to assess two important aspects of the post-IDE experience: the safety of carotid stenting by physicians with varying levels of experience as a measure of the adequacy of physician training, and the identification of rare/unexpected device-related complications.

Contextual fear conditioning is associated with lateralized expression of the immediate early gene c-fos in the central and basolateral amygdalar nuclei.

Fos, the protein product of the immediate early gene c-fos, was used to map functional circuitry underlying contextual conditioned fear. Male rats were given footshocks in a distinctive context and later tested using freezing as the behavioral measure and compared with no-shock and no-retention-test control groups. An increased number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons was found in the lateral part of the central nucleus and in the anterior basolateral and lateral amygdalar nuclei in the brains of the conditioned-fear group compared with controls.