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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
lowered blood pressure after angiogram
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
lowered blood pressure after angiogram
by Lourdes__0, Dec 29, 1998 12:00AM
I had an angiogram done about a year ago and I'm curious to know whether blood pressure tends to fall somewhat within the first month after such a test. My pressure was normally in the 100/65 range which I understand is normal for a petite woman. After my angiogram I noticed my pressure fell after I got home from the hospital to somewhere around 88/52 and stayed that way for several weeks. Is there something about the dye that could cause this? I was thinking that maybe in some ways the dye "flushes" out the arteries a bit, therefore lowering the blood pressure for a while. It's been a year now and my pressure is back up to where it was before the test. I just remember that when my pressure was low after the test I was a little scared because I wasn't sure why that was happening. Was there a reason for that?
Doctor's Answer
by CCF Cardio MD - MTR, Dec 29, 1998 12:00AM
Dear Lourdes, thank you for your question. Your BP after the angiogram was not significantly lowered - the values you quote are within the same range. Your BP is lower than average, but given your body size, these values are not a concern. During the injection of dye into the coronary arteries, the BP may fall for 5-10 seconds as the dye flushes out of the coronary arteries, but the BP quickly normalizes after each injection. There is no "lingering" effect on the BP after an angiogram.
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.
