A small ear stimulation device could offer a new way to tackle high blood pressure that stays elevated despite medication.
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have tested a device that stimulates nerves through the ear in people whose high blood pressure remained uncontrolled despite medication. The trial, published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that the treatment was safe and practical to use at home.
Finding additional ways to control blood pressure matters because many people receiving treatment still exceed recommended targets. Persistently high blood pressure increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.
Targeting Blood Pressure Through The Ear
The approach, transcutaneous autonomic neuromodulation (tAN), delivers electrical stimulation without an invasive procedure. It targets the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate blood pressure through functions outside conscious control.
The handheld device, developed by Afferent Medical Solutions, delivers gentle electrical pulses through two clips attached to the tragus, the small piece of cartilage at the front of the ear. Patients can administer the treatment themselves at home.
The NIHR-funded SCRATCH-HTN trial included 63 participants whose hypertension remained uncontrolled while taking one or more blood pressure medications. They were randomly assigned to receive either active stimulation or a sham device, allowing researchers to compare outcomes between the groups.
Participants used their devices for 30 minutes daily during the first two weeks, then once weekly for another 10 weeks. They followed the schedule closely, and treatment was safe and well tolerated during the trial. Those findings establish that the approach was practical to use but do not establish that it effectively lowers blood pressure compared to sham devices.
A Possible Benefit in More Severe Hypertension
Across the full study population, active treatment did not produce a significantly greater blood pressure reduction than the sham device. However, a subgroup analysis planned before the trial found a larger reduction with active treatment among people who began with more severe hypertension.
That result provides a direction for further research. Larger trials focused on specific patient groups will need to establish whether the difference holds up and identify who, if anyone, benefits.
Dr. Ajay Gupta, the chief investigator, a clinical reader at Queen Mary University of London and a consultant physician at Barts Health NHS Trust, said:
“This is an exciting, highly patient-acceptable technology that could ultimately provide a cheap, scalable solution for millions. Although the trial did not achieve significance across the broad unselected group, those with more severe hypertension exhibited a clear blood pressure reduction in the active group compared to sham.
“As the first and most thorough study of its kind, this points towards important new research directions that could help us understand whether non-invasive neuromodulation can benefit particular groups of patients with uncontrolled hypertension.”
Reference: “Safety, Acceptability and Efficacy of Noninvasive Transcutaneous-Autonomic Neuromodulation in Uncontrolled Hypertension” by Ajay Gupta, David Collier, James Steckelmacher, Jane Field, George Collett, Olivier Zongo, Mital Patel, Manish Saxena, Annastazia Learoyd, Amrita Ahluwalia and Peter Sever, 28 September 2026, Hypertension.
DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.126.27847
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