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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Increased BP due to psuedoephrine?
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Increased BP due to psuedoephrine?
by Bil__0__0, Jan 10, 1999 12:00AM
My BP has been 115/70 for 30 years; my age is 60. I had a stroke 5 months age; doing very good now. At admission for stroke BP was 190/90; stayed at that level for 3 days; doctor perscribed Prinivil 20mg; BP was below 130/80 within 4 days. My PCP kept me on that dosage for 3 1/2 months; during this time my BP was 117/69; I measure it 4 times a day; 7 days a week. Had a definite patten; before breakfast-110/65; bef lunch-120/70; bef dinner-125/75 and bef bed-120/70.
8 weeks ago my PCP OK'ed reducing the Prinivil to 10mg/day based on my 3 months of data(4/day & 7/wk) and his data over 4 visits. BP stayed constant (weekly ave=117/69) for 4 weeks.
Then I developed a head and chest cold with dry cough and a lot of post nasal drip. PCP perscribed Duratuss? - bad reaction low BP and high heart rate ~ 95/60 & 95/100 heart rate !!. PCP stopped Duratuss? and perscribed Claradin D. The following week had a few random BP readings in the 130 range- very unusal for my pattern. Took the Claradin gor 2 weeks.
Due to Xmas and visiting family did not take BP for 2 weeks.
Restarted my BP measurements 1 week ago. Very strang readings; readings are random; not my normal pattern; typically the average is now 130/72 as opposed to my old ave of 117/69. I'm now seeing peaks of 150 every 2 days or so. Change batteries in monitor- no effect.
Any ideas of what might have caused this change??
Also do strokes cause increased BP ?
Doctor's Answer
by CCF Cardio MD - MTR, Jan 10, 1999 12:00AM
Dear Bill, thank you for your question. Generally, you should aim to have your Systolic BP < 130 and your diastolic BP < 85. I don't think your cold medications are involved, so it may be necessary to increase your dose of Prinivil again. If your blood pressure is well-controlled on 20 mg a day, then it makes more sense to stay on that dose rather than decreasing the dose. Acutely, BP can increase after a stroke for a few days. However, high BP is the usual cause of strokes so the stroke is rarely a cause of sustained high BP.
I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart
Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
