Proposal of a new strategy for ambulatory blood pressure profile-based management of resistant hypertension in the era of renal denervation

In Asian populations, a high prevalence of stroke, high salt intake and high salt sensitivity, the effects of which are partly augmented by epidemic obesity, are associated with hypertension. These factors are closely associated with resistant hypertension, especially with the disrupted circadian rhythm of blood pressure (BP), that is, non-dipper and riser patterns. An ambulatory BP profile-based strategy combined with medication and devices (renal denervation and baroreceptor activation therapy) would help to achieve 'perfect 24-h BP control', consisting of strict reduction of the 24-h BP level, restoring disrupted circadian BP rhythms and reducing excess BP variability. Such BP control would protect high-risk patients with resistant hypertension against systemic hemodynamic atherothrombotic syndrome (which involves systemic atherothrombotic vascular diseases and target-organ damage, advanced by the composite risks of pulsatile hemodynamic stress from central pressure and blood flow and by thrombometabolic risk factors). Information technology-based home sleep BP pressure monitoring may be useful for assessing the risk during sleep in high-risk patients with resistant hypertension and sleep apnea syndrome.