Nothing seemed to work. At 45, Mrs. Ramani had high blood pressure that did not come under control even with multiple drugs. In time she began suffering breathlessness and moderate renal failure.

Mrs. Ramani’s problem was actually the narrowing of vessels supplying blood to the kidney. She had 70% narrowing of her left renal artery. If untreated this condition would lead to hypertension and renal failure over a period of time.

Young patients with high BP and patients in whom blood pressure is not controlled in spite of multiple drugs, need to be evaluated for Reno vascular hypertension.

Though Color Doppler studies and Nuclear medicine studies can identify these patients, the block in blood vessels to kidney can be diagnosed with CT/MR Angiography or Conventional Angiography.

Relieving the block
If the block is significant it needs to be relieved. New pinhole techniques allow us to access the blood vessel to the kidney through a small puncture in the groin. A thin guide wire is used to cross the lesion and blocks are dilated with a balloon, followed by stent placement. Opening up of blood supply to the kidney leads to better BP control and improvement in renal function. Block in left renal artery opened by angioplasty & stenting

Dramatic improvement
We treated Mrs. Ramani’s condition through pinhole surgery and placed a stent across the narrowed blood vessel.

There was dramatic improvement in her condition. In fact she now requires only a single drug for her blood pressure control. The deterioration of her renal function was also arrested.

Timely identification of the abnormality and early treatment are the key to salvaging renal function and preventing progressive renal damage.

Dr. K. Murali, MD.P.D.C.C.
Interventional Radiologist