extreme high blood pressure

I just had a stress test because I have WPW.  My WPW went away during exercise, but my doctor said that I had extremely high blood pressure during the test.  Is this anything that I should worry about?

[CCF-M.D.-RCJ]

Davenport,

Thanks for the post.

It depends on what is meant by "extremely high".  A BP of 200/100, for example is high, but likely needs no further therapy without resting hypertension.  A BP of 300/150 needs further evaluation regardless of the resting blood pressure.

The prognostic importance of exercise-induced hypertension has been evaluated at the Cleveland Clinic in 3000 patients with suspected or known coronary disease referred for exercise testing. Patients who had exercise-induced hypertension, defined as a peak systolic blood pressure 210 mmHg in men and 190 mmHg were less likely to have perfusion abnormalities on a thallium scan or to have extensive abnormalities, and there was no increase in mortality at six year follow-up.

Tlak to your doctor.  He/She should give you some guidance in this area.

goood luck.

[bob_sixsix]

I had a stress test done recently and my blood pressure reached 220/0.  My cardiologist told me not to be concerned because my blood pressure returned to normal (130/80) very rapidly.  I thought it was kind of strange too to see my BP elevated so high.  I completed 90% of the Bruce Protocol.
I am 6'6", 35 years old, no family history of heart disease, weigh 240 lbs.
I am still concerned about this high BP.

[Richard_W]

I also happen to be 6'6".  I'd be a little concerned about that BP.  I'd bet dropping a few pounds would bring it down.  I'd shoot for about 110/70 and monitor it daily.  You won't be sorry.  

I used to think my BP was "normal" and I have come to believe it is the root cause of my afib, now controlled by betapace.  I will be 60 in December.  My last stress echo was entirely normal and the doctor said I did better than the 18 year old previously tested.  But I still have to keep an eye on the BP and I also need to drop some weight.

[bob_sixsix]

Hello,
Thank you for your comments Richard.

I am not quite sure if I can ever get my blood pressure down to 110/70.  I would think that is actually too low for my age, gender and body type.  I am not overweight by any means, but do have a "larger" frame.

I have played basketball 2 - 3 per week for the past ten years but have been laying off of it lately do to constantly being lightheaded.  I can not seem to get rid of this "medicine head" type feeling, occasional shortness of breath and constant dull ache/pressure in upper left chest area.  I have recently had echocardiograms, blood work, and a CT chest scan (with contrast).  I have also been to the ER a couple of times over the past year with my "symptoms".  Everything has always turned out negative!  My doctor tends to blame it on anxiety, but I really don't agree with him.

When you are having a-fib do you actually see your left pectoral muscle "twitching"?  I get this from time to time, but my heart rate does not seem to increase.  It feels more like the pectoral muscle, but I am not sure and my concern tends to cause my heart to pound slightly louder/harder (not more rapidly).  The "twitching" will never last longer than 1 minute and is not constant.  It will twithc a few times and then stop and then twitch again.  Not really sure how to explain that.

Do you recall the highest blood pressure reading during your stress test?

Thanks again for your comments.

~Robert

[Richard_W]

I can't say that I have seen my pectoral muscle twitching during afib.  I just know that when I have been in afib (actually more aflutter at 142 bpm) the bed used to rock and roll and that drove me nuts to say the least.  A lower rate of about 82 bpm in pure afib was tolerable.  (You tend to get used to it).  

The twitching sounds to me like it might be a situation where you are overworking the muscle.  Do you lift heavy weights?  I don't want to alarm you but muscle twitching is sometimes associated with Lou Gehrig's Disease.  I would seriously doubt that is your problem but I would want to check and see if there is a reason.  Perhaps you are deficient in some mineral or vitamin.  

I would recommend that you invest in a good quality blood pressure machine.  I would recommend the OMRON wrist model as it is so easy to use and then keep regular readings at different times of the day.  I would do everything possible to get it as low as possible and I believe that 110/70 is the ideal target to shoot for.  120/80 (the old standard) is being outdated as the beginning of hypertension.

Speaking as someone whose spouse suffered a very serious problem due to high blood pressure I will never be ignorant about this problem again.  I used to think I was safe but no longer.  I am on meds and exercise regularly but I will never be totally out of the words especially at my age.  

Hope this helps somewhat.

[dressagequeen]

I am a 38 female, up til Nov. had very low BP 90/60s. Then, out of the blue, started getting really bad headaches, chest pains, dizziness. I work for a school, so went to the school nurse, and she took my BP, wasnt really high but around 140/94. I went to her for a week, and BP kept getting higher til I finally gave in and went to my FP, and he took it, my BP was 155/110. I felt like my head was going to explode. He put me on atenolol,first 25mg. but that didnt work so increased it to 50 mg. Still, was having chest pains and lightheadedness, so he added Diovan 80mg. I also went for stress testand echo. FOund I have mild mitral valve and moderate tricuspid valve regurgitation. I do have a family history of heart disease,Im 5'71/2", weigh 148. COuld stand to lose about 15 to 20 lbs. am pretty active, and very rarely add salt to my diet. Do you think that the valve disease and BP are correlated? DO I have to watch closer to see if this is a progressive thing? I did have kidneys checked, they found a few things but told me they were all incidental. Any suggestions?

[Bob622]

A related discussion, How lon does it take for BP improvement on medication was started.

[pat260]

A related discussion, stress test bp systolic 260 after 3 mins. was started.