Compliance In Focus

Currently hypertension affects 30.4% of the American population and is projected to cost the nation 91.4 billion dollars a year in 2015.  A subset of hypertensive patients have what is referred to as resistant hypertension.  This refers to a patient receiving three or more anti-hypertensive medications without receiving adequate benefit.  Because of this arbitrary definition, the number of people afflicted with resistant hypertension has varied between 5% in general medical practice and 50% in nephrology clinics. As an alternative to additional anti-hypertensive medication, renal denervation has been used as a therapy to combat high blood pressure.

According to the CDC- 31.9% of adults over 20 years old are hypertensive. The American Heart Association equates that to 77.9 million, or 1 out of 3 adults. High blood pressure is known as the “silent killer” often has no warning signs or symptoms. The CDC also links high blood pressure to $131 billion annually in costs to direct medical expenses a year.