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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 Dec;17(6):1347-1352.
doi: 10.1007/s12265-024-10544-4. Epub 2024 Jul 5.

Blood Pressure Variability After Non-invasive Low-level Tragus Stimulation in Acute Heart Failure

Michiaki Nagai  1   2 , Keigo Dote  3 , Masaya Kato  3 , Shota Sasaki  3 , Noboru Oda  3 , Sunny S Po  4 , Tarun W Dasari  5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Blood Pressure Variability After Non-invasive Low-level Tragus Stimulation in Acute Heart Failure

Michiaki Nagai et al. J Cardiovasc Transl Res. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Higher blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV) was shown to be strong predictors of poor cardiovascular outcomes in heart failure (HF). It is currently unknown if low-level tragus stimulation (LLTS) would lead to improvement in BPV in acute HF (AHF). The 22 patients with AHF (median 80 yrs, males 60%) were randomly assigned to active or sham group using an ear clip attached to the tragus (active group) or the earlobe (sham group) for 1 h daily over 5 days. In the active group, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV) and δ in SBP were significantly decreased after LLTS (all p < 0.05). All the changes in SD, CV and δ in SBP before and after stimulation were also significantly different between active and sham groups (all p < 0.05). This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the beneficial effects of LLTS on BPV in AHF.

Keywords: Acute heart failure; Blood pressure variability; Low-level transcutaneous electrical stimulation; Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics Declarations: All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional committee of the Hiroshima City Asa Hospital (02–6-25) and with the Helsinki Declaration. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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