A Complicated Case of Resistant Hypertension

A 47-year-old woman presented with a history of resistant arterial hypertension, associated with disabling headache. She was subjected to an enormous number of tests in order to identify an underlying cause of secondary hypertension, such as pheochromocytoma or Cushing syndrome, but all the most common causes of secondary hypertension were investigated and gradually excluded. Factitious use of amphetamine or cocaine was excluded, and therapy compliance was verified by witnessed ingestion of drug therapy, in order to rule out Munchausen syndrome. The patient underwent a first transcatheter renal denervation (RDN) with poor effect on blood pressure (BP) at long term follow up. Because of extremely poor control of BP values, a second RDN was performed two years later, again with inadequate long term efficacy. Despite an uncontrollable pre-procedural BP, RDN had an excessive BP lowering effect in this patient, but only for few months. In conclusion, a definitive diagnosis was not performed in our patient, despite an extremely deepened examination of the most common cause of refractory hypertension.