Accidental Discovery Reveals That Brain Stimulator Lowers Blood Pressure
January 25th, 2011 - 8:39 pm ICT by GDBy Meena Kar
Jan 25, (THAINDIAN NEWS) People suffering from high blood pressure can take heart. A recent research has uncovered a great new method to control severe fluctuations in blood pressure. The study advocates the use of a method called deep brain stimulation, which, researchers note, helps to reduce high blood pressure, bringing the patient in a more or less stable condition. Scientists agree that this is a major breakthrough in the fields of cardiac as well as neurological sciences, and is a giant leap in the treatment of this condition, which, though common enough, has admittedly been quite baffling so far.
The find was quite ’serendipitous’, as one of the researchers put it. British doctors had treated a heart patient after he experienced a stroke. He had a record of high blood pressure, and the doctors discovered that even after the necessary operation was performed following the stroke, the 55-year-old patient continued to suffer from a chronic pain in his left side. Along with this, his blood pressure refused to respond to the drugs that he was taking in order to bring it down. Yet another visit to the hospital, where he was examined and re-examined by the doctors, he was finally relieved of the pain with the help of a deep brain stimulator.
The researchers of the Frenchay Hospital, where the man was admitted, reported that they had implanted the device, not unlike a pacemaker in function, in the patient’s brain. where it proceeded to send electrical impulses to his brain. The method was undertaken totally in an experimental basis, and to reduce the pain. It worked, although temporarily, and the patient returned after four months. His pain had returned but his blood pressure had come under control.
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Tags: accidental discovery, british doctors, chronic pain, deep brain stimulation, deep brain stimulator, electrical impulses, experimental basis, fluctuations in blood pressure, four months, frenchay hospital, giant leap, heart patient, high blood pressure, kar, meena, necessary operation, neurological sciences, pacemaker, stable condition, stroke