Renal Denervation for the Treatment of Hypertension: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the widespread availability of both pharmacological and lifestyle therapeutic options, blood pressure control rates across the globe are worsening. In fact, only 23% of individuals with high blood pressure in the United States achieve treatment goals.

Salt-Sensitive Hypertension and the Kidney.

Salt-sensitive hypertension (SS-HT) is characterized by blood pressure elevation in response to high dietary salt intake and is considered to increase the risk of cardiovascular and renal morbidity. Although the mechanisms responsible for SS-HT are complex, the kidneys are known to play a central role in the development of SS-HT and the salt sensitivity of blood pressure (SSBP). Moreover, several factors influence renal function and SSBP, including the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sympathetic nervous system, obesity, and aging.

Efficacy of Dynamics-based Features for Machine Learning Classification of Renal Hemodynamics.

Different machine learning approaches for analyzing renal hemodynamics using time series of arterial blood pressure and renal blood flow rate measurements in conscious rats are developed and compared. Particular emphasis is placed on features used for machine learning. The test scenario involves binary classification of Sprague-Dawley rats obtained from two different suppliers, with the suppliers' rat colonies having drifted slightly apart in hemodynamic characteristics.

Apparent stability masks underlying change in a mule deer herd with unmanaged chronic wasting disease.

The contagious prion disease "chronic wasting disease" (CWD) infects mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and related species. Unchecked epidemics raise ecological, socioeconomic, and public health concerns. Prion infection shortens a deer's lifespan, and when prevalence (proportion of adults infected) becomes sufficiently high CWD can affect herd dynamics.

Reduction of Chronic Wasting Disease Prion Seeding Activity following Digestion by Mountain Lions.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible prion disease first observed in the 1960s in North America. This invariably fatal disease affects multiple cervid species in the wild and in captivity. In addition to the several known transmission pathways involving cervid host species, prions have been detected in the feces of crows and coyotes after consumption of experimentally spiked tissues.

MOUNTAIN LIONS (PUMA CONCOLOR) RESIST LONG-TERM DIETARY EXPOSURE TO CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE.

For nearly 18 yr, we evaluated susceptibility of captive mountain lions (Puma concolor) to chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the face of repeated exposure associated with consuming infected cervid carcasses. Three mountain lions with a monomorphic prion protein gene (PRNP) sequence identical to that described previously for the species had access to parts of ≥432 infected carcasses during ≥2,013 feeding occasions, conservatively representing >14,000 kg of infected feed material, during May 2002 to March 2020. The proportion of diet in infected carcass material averaged 43% overall but differed from year to year (minimally 11-74%).

Detection of chronic wasting disease in mule and white-tailed deer by RT-QuIC analysis of outer ear.

Efforts to contain the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal, contagious prion disease of cervids, would be aided by the availability of additional diagnostic tools. RT-QuIC assays allow ultrasensitive detection of prion seeds in a wide variety of cervid tissues, fluids and excreta. The best documented antemortem diagnostic test involving RT-QuIC analysis targets lymphoid tissue in rectal biopsies.

Pathophysiology of unilateral ischemia-reperfusion injury: importance of renal counterbalance and implications for the AKI-CKD transition.

Unilateral ischemia-reperfusion (UIR) injury leads to progressive renal atrophy and tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF) and is commonly used to investigate the pathogenesis of the acute kidney injury-chronic kidney disease transition. Although it is well known that contralateral nephrectomy (CNX), even 2 wk post-UIR injury, can improve recovery, the physiological mechanisms and tubular signaling pathways mediating such improved recovery remain poorly defined. Here, we examined the renal hemodynamic and tubular signaling pathways associated with UIR injury and its reversal by CNX.

Autoregulatory Efficiency Assessment in Kidneys Using Deep Learning.

A convolutional deep neural network is employed to assess renal autoregulation using time series of arterial blood pressure and blood flow rate measurements in conscious rats. The network is trained using representative data samples from rats with intact autoregulation and rats whose autoregulation is impaired by the calcium channel blocker amlodipine. Network performance is evaluated using test data of the types used for training, but also with data from other models for autoregulatory impairment, including different calcium channel blockers and also renal mass reduction.

BP Fluctuations and the Real-Time Dynamics of Renal Blood Flow Responses in Conscious Rats.

Background: Renal autoregulation maintains stable renal function despite BP fluctuations and protects glomerular capillaries from hypertensive injury. However, real-time dynamics of renal autoregulation in conscious animals have not been characterized.

Methods: To develop novel analytic methods for assessing renal autoregulation, we recorded concurrent BP and renal blood flow in conscious rats, comparing animals with renal autoregulation that was intact versus impaired (from 3/4 nephrectomy), before and after additional impairment (from the calcium channel blocker amlodipine).

Non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease is associated with high total and out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures.

Background: Previous studies have documented the high costs of non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) but out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures remain poorly explored. This study described total direct and out-of-pocket expenditures for adults with non-dialysis dependent CKD and compared expenditures with those for cancer or stroke.

Methods: This study used data from the 2011-2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a national survey of healthcare expenditures in the U.

SEASON OF DELTAMETHRIN APPLICATION AFFECTS FLEA AND PLAGUE CONTROL IN WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG (CYNOMYS LEUCURUS) COLONIES, COLORADO, USA.

In 2008 and 2009, we evaluated the duration of prophylactic deltamethrin treatments in white-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys leucurus ) colonies and compared effects of autumn or spring dust application in suppressing flea numbers and plague. Plague occurred before and during our experiment. Overall, flea abundance tended to increase from May or June to September, but it was affected by deltamethrin treatment and plague dynamics.

Glomerulosclerosis in the diet-induced obesity model correlates with sensitivity to nitric oxide inhibition but not glomerular hyperfiltration or hypertrophy.

The diet-induced obesity (DIO) model is frequently used to examine the pathogenesis of obesity-related pathologies; however, only minimal glomerulosclerosis (GS) has been reported after 3 mo. We investigated if GS develops over longer periods of DIO and examined the potential role of hemodynamic mechanisms in its pathogenesis. Eight-week-old male obesity-prone (OP) and obesity-resistant (OR) rats (Charles River) were administered a moderately high-fat diet for 5 mo.

Hemodynamic basis for the limited renal injury in rats with angiotensin II-induced hypertension.

ANG II is thought to increase the susceptibility to hypertension-induced renal disease (HIRD) via blood pressure (BP)-dependent and BP-independent pathways; however, the quantitative relationships between BP and HIRD have not been examined in ANG II-infused hypertensive rats. We compared the relationship between radiotelemetrically measured BP and HIRD in Sprague-Dawley rats (Harlan) chronically administered ANG II (300-500 ng·kg(-1)·min(-1), n = 19) for 4 wk versus another commonly employed pharmacological model of hypertension induced by the chronic administration of N(ω)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 50 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1), n = 23). [DOSAGE ERROR CORRECTED].

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) sinus tumors are associated with coinfections by potentially pathogenic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract.

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) sinus tumors are hyperplastic to neoplastic, predominantly stromal masses of the paranasal sinuses that expand the sinus lining and obstruct the sinus cavities. Obstruction of the sinus cavities and disruption of normal sinus lining anatomy may interfere with clearance of bacterial pathogens from the upper respiratory tract. To examine this possibility, we explored whether the presence of sinus tumor features (tumor score) affected the likelihood of detecting potentially pathogenic bacteria from upper respiratory sinus lining tissues in bighorn sheep.

Critical blood pressure threshold dependence of hypertensive injury and repair in a malignant nephrosclerosis model.

Most patients with essential hypertension do not exhibit substantial renal damage. Renal autoregulation by preventing glomerular transmission of systemic pressures has been postulated to mediate this resistance. Conversely, malignant nephrosclerosis (MN) has been postulated to develop when severe hypertension exceeds a critical ceiling.

Severe renal mass reduction impairs recovery and promotes fibrosis after AKI.

Preexisting CKD may affect the severity of and/or recovery from AKI. We assessed the impact of prior graded normotensive renal mass reduction on ischemia-reperfusion-induced AKI. Rats underwent 40 minutes of ischemia 2 weeks after right uninephrectomy and surgical excision of both poles of the left kidney (75% reduction of renal mass), right uninephrectomy (50% reduction of renal mass), or sham reduction of renal mass.

Blood pressure-renal blood flow relationships in conscious angiotensin II- and phenylephrine-infused rats.

Chronic ANG II infusion in rodents is widely used as an experimental model of hypertension, yet very limited data are available describing the resulting blood pressure-renal blood flow (BP-RBF) relationships in conscious rats. Accordingly, male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 19) were instrumented for chronic measurements of BP (radiotelemetry) and RBF (Transonic Systems, Ithaca, NY). One week later, two or three separate 2-h recordings of BP and RBF were obtained in conscious rats at 24-h intervals, in addition to separate 24-h BP recordings.

Genetic predictions of prion disease susceptibility in carnivore species based on variability of the prion gene coding region.

Mammalian species vary widely in their apparent susceptibility to prion diseases. For example, several felid species developed prion disease (feline spongiform encephalopathy or FSE) during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic in the United Kingdom, whereas no canine BSE cases were detected. Whether either of these or other groups of carnivore species can contract other prion diseases (e.

Renal microvascular dysfunction, hypertension and CKD progression.

Purpose Of Review: Despite apparent blood pressure (BP) control and renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockade, the chronic kidney disease (CKD) outcomes have been suboptimal. Accordingly, this review is addressed to renal microvascular and autoregulatory impairments that underlie the enhanced dynamic glomerular BP transmission in CKD progression.

Recent Findings: Clinical data suggest that failure to achieve adequate 24-h BP control is likely contributing to the suboptimal outcomes in CKD.

Hypertension and chronic kidney disease progression: why the suboptimal outcomes?

Current therapeutic interventions to retard the progression of chronic kidney disease have yielded disappointing outcomes despite adequate renin-angiotensin system blockade. The parameters to gauge the adequacy of blood pressure control need to be reassessed because clinic blood pressure constitutes a poor gauge of such control. The biologically relevant parameter for hypertensive target organ damage is total blood pressure burden, and reliance on isolated clinic blood pressure measurements per se does not accurately reflect the total blood pressure burden.