A Study of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Issues and Techniques for Hemodynamic Control

Abstract

Abstract Approximately 75 million adults in the U.S. have hypertension. With appropriate adjustments, neuromodulation therapy, or more specifically vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), can provide cardiovascular condition and performance improvements for this segment of the U.S. population. In designing and developing VNS devices and protocols for cardiovascular disorders; the needs and preferences of the patient and the health care practitioner who treats the patient must be considered. They should be the in the group of primary design drivers for both the device and the protocol. With the patient and health care practitioner in mind, it appears that both implanted and non-invasive VNS approaches will have their own unique roles in treating cardiovascular disease. Under that scenario, new and more comfortable VNS implant designs and protocols can benefit from non-invasive VNS (NI-VNS) device and protocol advances. NI-VNS can provide a relatively safe, convenient, and effective way to obtain useful clinical study information to help define and establish proposed mechanisms-of-action associated with VNS regulation and control of blood pressure and heart rate. Also, VNS device development can be assisted and advanced even further with new and improved design tools. Included in that category are modeling/simulation tools and techniques that can help provide insights into the responses and sensitivities associated with VNS-cardiovascular-neurological interfaces and associated functional relationships.