12-month blood pressure results of catheter-based renal artery denervation for resistant hypertension: the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial.

Background: Results of the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 (Renal Denervation in Patients With Uncontrolled Hypertension) trial confirmed the safety but not the efficacy of renal denervation for treatment-resistant hypertension at 6 months post procedure.

Objectives: This study sought to analyze the 12-month SYMPLICITY HTN-3 results for the original denervation group, the sham subjects who underwent denervation after the 6-month endpoint (crossover group), and the sham subjects who did not undergo denervation after 6 months (non-crossover group).

Methods: Eligible subjects were randomized 2:1 to denervation or sham procedure.

Predictors of blood pressure response in the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial.

Aims: The SYMPLICITY HTN-3 randomized, blinded, sham-controlled trial confirmed the safety of renal denervation (RDN), but did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint. Prior RDN studies have demonstrated significant and durable reductions in blood pressure. This analysis investigated factors that may help explain these disparate results.

A controlled trial of renal denervation for resistant hypertension.

Background: Prior unblinded studies have suggested that catheter-based renal-artery denervation reduces blood pressure in patients with resistant hypertension.

Methods: We designed a prospective, single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. Patients with severe resistant hypertension were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to undergo renal denervation or a sham procedure.

Clinical and angiographic outcome in patients with completely occluded intracranial aneurysms by endovascular coiling: our experience.

Objective: There are limited data about the rate of recanalization following complete coil occlusion. Long term clinical and angiographic outcome of completely occluded intracranial aneurysms (IAs) by the endovascular approach are presented.

Methods: Over the course of 4 years, patients with IAs which were completely occluded by coiling at our institution were reviewed.

Small bowel obstruction subsequent to Essure microinsert sterilization: a case report.

Objective: To report a case of small bowel obstruction (SBO) subsequent to Essure microinsert sterilization.

Design: Case report.

Setting: University teaching hospital.

Therapy of hypertension in African Americans.

Hypertension in African Americans is a major clinical and public health problem because of the high prevalence and premature onset of elevated blood pressure (BP) as well as the high burden of co-morbid factors that lead to pharmacological treatment resistance (obesity, diabetes mellitus, depressed glomerular filtration rate, and albuminuria). BP control rates are lower in African Americans, especially men, than in other major race/ethnicity-sex groups; overall control rates are 29.9% for non-Hispanic Black men.

Maximising antihypertensive effects of angiotensin II receptor blockers with thiazide diuretic combination therapy: focus on irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide.

Background: Evidence-based guidelines for the management of hypertension are now well established. Studies have shown that more than 60% of patients with hypertension will require two or more drugs to achieve current treatment targets.

Discussion: Combination therapy is recommended as first-line treatment by the JNC-7 guidelines for patients with a blood pressure > 20 mmHg above the systolic goal or 10 mmHg above the diastolic goal, while the International Society of Hypertension in Blacks recommends combination therapy when BP exceeds targets by > 15/10 mmHg.

An overview of HIV infection and AIDS: etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, epidemiology, and occupational exposure.

Thanks to a worldwide collaborative effort among health care providers, academia, governments, and industry, our knowledge base about infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has expanded exponentially. During the past 2 decades, we have learned about its pathogenesis, virology, immunology, epidemiology and treatment. In the developed world, the approach to persons with HIV disease has evolved from palliative disease care to use of a chronic disease model, where survival is measured by decades, not months or years.