MRI IN THE ASSESSMENT OF CEREBRAL INJURY AND CEREBROPROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF RENAL DENERVATION IN RESISTANT ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

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Objective: The purpose of this single-centre, prospective, comparative study was to evaluate the pattern and severity of the brain structural changes in patients with resistant hypertension (RH) based on MRI assessments and their changes one year after renal denervation (RDN). Design and method: The study comprised 58 patients with RH, aged 52.1 ± 9.1 years, who underwent RDN. Patients underwent office blood pressure measurements, 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, and brain MRI scanning. Using brain MRI, the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) system measurements, the presence of periventricular leukoaraiosis and focal changes in the brain white matter were evaluated. Results: Initially, patients with RH had a high incidence of the structural brain alterations: 75% with fine focal brain lesions, 75% with impaired CSF dynamics, 23% with sulcal widening, and 90% with periventricular oedema. After RDN, a significant hypotensive effect was noted. According to brain MRI, the number of patients without impaired CSF dynamics did not change significantly: 25% initially, and 20% a year later (χ 2 = 0.63 p = 0.43, and χ2 = 0.72 p = 0.40). The number of patients with grade I impaired CSF dynamics after 6 months significantly increased after 12 months from 50% to 64% (χ2 = 4.00, p = 0.046) due to lowering the number of patients without impaired CSF dynamics and patients with grade II impaired CSF dynamics (χ2 = 1.56, p = 0.21). The number of patients with sulcal widening significantly decreased: from 23% to 8% one year following RDN (χ2 = 40.21 p = 0.000). The incidence of periventricular cerebral oedema did not significantly change one year after the procedure; however, the incidence of fine focal brain lesions significantly decreased (from 75 to 60%, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Thus, it has been revealed that patients with RH are characterised by a high incidence of structural brain alterations based on MRI assessments. A year after bilateral renal denervation, there are significant improvement in intracranial hypertension signs and decrease in the incidence of fine focal brain lesions, without a significant change in the CSF dynamics parameters (Table 1). Figure 1 shows a clinical example of a decrease in the number of fine focal brain lesions after the intervention.