Findings After Stress Test and Echo

Hi,

My wife has been having hi blood pressure. As a result our cardiologist put her on Metoprol 75 mg. Her blood pressure has returned to normal He also performed a stress test and echo on her. The echo showed that she has excess water around the heart and it is squeezing on the heart. He prescribed hydrochlorothiazide. My questions are:

1. Is this something serious?
2. Can this medicine help her control this?
3. Does she need to be taking this medicine for a long time?
4. How did this issue started to begin with?

Thanks,
Boaz

[Darcy Green Conaway, MD]

fluid around the heart (pericardial effusion) is there because of a reason-- and that needs to be figured out. Common causes include infection, neoplasm, autoimmune disorders, kidney problems (to name a few).It is not enough to start a water pill (hydrochlorothiazide) -- it needs to be worked up as to why she has the fluid is there.
1)It can be very serious; the severity depends on why it's there
2)The hydrochlorothiazide will probably not help the effusion