My mom is 78 years old and has just been diagnosed as having had a stroke in the cerebellum. She has had profuse sweats and in the emergency room, her blood pressure was 207/90. It has been three weeks and today her blood pressure was 210/110. I took her to Urgent Care and the physician was not concerned. He did give her a mild diuretic to slowly lower her pressure. Is she at risk for another stroke or a heart attack with this high blood pressure?

Thank you for your question. I am sorry to hear about your mom's condition. This blood pressure of 210/110 is definitely high. This needs medical attention and frequent visits to the physician's office or provider. The urgent care physician is appropriate in not trying to lower the blood pressure too rapidly as there are situations where too rapid lowering of the blood pressure especially in a recent stroke condition that can lead to further brain damage.

Unfortunately, once a stroke has occurred a recurrent stroke recurs with higher frequency than the normal population. Having had a stroke also puts your mother at higher risk for cardiac events as well. It would be important to discuss this with your neurologist or internist to aggressively institute secondary prevention measures. The secondary prevention measures are targeted at blood pressure control, cholesterol and other lipid management, dietary and lifestyle changes to prevent another stroke or new heart event.

Please let us know how it goes and if we can help you further.

Dr. Fung

-- Dr. Gordon Fung, MD, MPH, is a cardiologist and associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center at Mt. Zion.

Last updated December 22, 2008
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