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What Causes Sudden Drop In Blood Pressure Level While On HTN Medicines?

Posted on Tue, 30 Dec 2014

Question: Hi..my father aged 72yrs has been on HTN medicines since last 15+ yrs. However, last monday his BP went on the lower side (100/70) and on admission to CCU was later diagnoised as having Pericardial Effussion. On the same day his Serum Creatinine level was 2.8, RBSG was around 190+, and esoinophill was 34%. Once his BP stabilized, a cathertr procedure was done to remove the liquid; its been 5 days since then and his BP has stabilised at 140/90, RBSG at 130+ and esoinophill was at 18% at discharge. Why is this sudden change in his BP (his HTN meds are on hold now), what lead to Pericardial effusion and what next ?

Answered by Dr. Benard Shehu (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Everything is due to pericardial effusion (and tamponade)....

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX

I have gone through the medical history of your father carefully and am sorry for the situation he is in.

1. Such sudden drop in his blood pressure was due to pericardial effusion (tamponade).

2. Possible causes to pericardial effusion include:
- virus
- kidney
- auto-immune
- rheumatismal
- tumors
- TB

3. I advise to:
- start NSAIDs
- run further diagnostic tests: serology; tumoral markers, abdominal ultrasound, chest X-ray to find out the right cause

Hope it was of help!
Dr.Benard

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar