Researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany are working on an implantable electronic cuff that could use electrical pulses in the neck to control blood pressure.
Following smoking and alcohol consumption, high blood pressure is the greatest health risk worldwide, according to The Daily Mail.
67 million American adults - almost 1 in every 3 - have high blood pressure. Chronic high blood pressure causes damage to the eyes, the heart, kidneys and the central nervous system.
For the study, the research team placed the cuff in the vagus nerve of rats. The vagus nerve extends from the brain stem into the thorax and abdomen in both rats and humans, and runs through the neck along the way, Gizmag reported.
The nerve relays signals that control bodily procedures occurring while a person is unconscious. These procedures include heart rate, breathing and digestion.
The cuff was developed by Dr. Dennis Plachta and Dr. Thomas Stieglitz from the Laboratory of Biomedical Microtechnology at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) along with neurosurgeons Dr. Mortimer Gierthmuhlen and Dr. Josef Zentner from the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg, The Daily Mail reported.
The team implanted 24 electrodes into the device and used a process they called "BaroLoop". Once in the vagus nerve, the device determines which electrode is closest to the nerve fibers that transmit a blood pressure signal. It then uses electrostimulation to precisely overwrite the information in these fibers so that other fibers with different bodily functions are not affected.
The mean blood pressure in the rats decreased by 30 percent, and their heart rate and respiratory rate stayed the same, Gizmag reported.
While the current prototype uses leads that extend out of the body, the team is now developing a device that is completely implantable.
But the team said high safety standards for this kind of implant might delay the release of a licensed product for at least 10 years.
The study was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
