Pulse pressure

[DavesMom]

I was reading recently about what the pulse pressure can tell about our hearts. I never knew about this and my doctor has never mentioned it. Mine is usually in the 70s or more, which is considered high.

Here's a link that explains it. I think it's very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_pressure

Has anyone's doctor ever said anything about this?

Cheers!

 

[Bryan B]

Yes my cardiologists used my pulse pressure along with everything else when determining my worsening aortic regurgitation. When I had endocarditis I noticed my pulse pressure widening but it didn't really click in my brain until it became advanced. My PCP who was trying to determine why I was getting sicker apparently had never heard about it. I finally diagnosed myself before he did and insisted on getting blood cultures done. After coming back positive they did an echo revealing the vegetations and he "congratulated me" on being right.

 

[Bill B]

A high pulse pressure would be consistent with systolic hypertension. Until the last 20 years or so ago this was largely ignored and considered primarily a result of aging and stiffening of the arteries. As the wiki explains, it now is regarded as more significant and treated more aggressively.

 

[dwhist]

I found this interesting as I had not heard of it before. When I got home last night I took my blood pressure and I was at 126/86. Perfect 40. I did have the cardiac tamonade referenced in the note about 4 weeks ago and was not checking blood pressure for this item. That led to second surgery to remove fluid. I have been worried about it happening again. The doctor said it would be rare to happen again. But now I have another way to watch to see if any issue building.

So, Thanks.

Also, I have a blood pressure machine that keeps track and downloads info, so when I get some time I am going to print it out and see how the pressure changed before and after the AVR and then around the time of the cardiac tamonade. If I see a trend, I will report back.

 

[DavesMom]

Hi all,

Bill - interesting about the systolic hypertension. I definitely appear to have that as my diastolic number rarely hits above 80. A recent reading was 170/70, which is a wide pulse pressure. However, that might have been due to the Starbucks I'd slammed down a couple of hours earlier. : ) Most times, though, my pulse pressure is anywhere from the 50s to the 70s. Now I'm going to keep closer track of this.

With me having a mechanical valve and being watched due to another aneurysm, I'm surprised my cardio has never mentioned this. She just gets very concerned if my systolic is even in the 140s as she wants me at 120/70 because of the aneurysm. I'm on Coreg and she's tried a couple of times to get me to add a second BP med but I've balked as I don't want to be a zombie.

dwhist - Glad you found this helpful. Let us know if you see a trend.

Cheers!