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Neuroprosthetic device maintains blood pressure after spinal cord injury

The inability to maintain blood pressure is a debilitating consequence of spinal cord injury. This problem has now been circumvented, by artificially recreating a reflex essential for blood-pressure stability.
  1. Patrice G. Guyenet

    1. Patrice G. Guyenet is in the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22906, USA.

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Paralysis and sensory deficits are the most obvious consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI). But many people also experience orthostatic hypotension — an inability to maintain blood pressure when moving from lying to sitting or standing1. In the short term, the condition can prevent normal filling of the heart with blood, and can cause light-headedness and dizziness. In the long term, recurrent episodes of orthostatic hypotension increase the incidence of heart attack and stroke, which are leading causes of death in people who have had an SCI. Writing in Nature, Squair et al.2 report a neuroprosthetic strategy that minimizes orthostatic hypotension caused by SCI. The device restores blood-pressure control in rodents, monkeys and humans.

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Nature 590, 223-224 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00087-y

References

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