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What Causes Sudden Non-responsive Behavior And High BP?
Question: Last night my 77 year old mom was unresponsive for about 20 minutes and we called 911. She is diabetic but her blood sugar was normal. whem ems arrived she had woken up but bp was 213/101, and she was very combative. She refused to go to the hospital . She also has a history of seizures and did have a small stroke about 3 years ago.. I would like your opinion please..
Brief Answer:
could be various conditions like stroke, epilepsy, arrhythmia
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
a normal blood sugar excludes hypoglycemia, so the most likely causes are a cerebrovascular incident, a seizure or arrhythmia.
Cerebrovascular incidents may be permanent or transient. Loss of consciousness usually accompanies serious events and such a fast recovery is not expected.
Epilepsy may cause an incident of variable duration. Such incidents are commonly followed by confusion.
Arrhythmia may be transient as well and when the heart rhythm gets back to normal the patient may become conscious again. Depending on whether the brain was adequately fed during the incident or not, a confusional state may occur afterwards.
The high blood pressure is a common finding in cerebrovascular incidents but taking the blood pressure in a combative patient may give falsely high readings.
The doctors should investigate all three possibilities and of course search for other disorders (like electrolyte imbalance) with blood and radiological tests.
I hope you find my comments helpful!
You can contact me again, if you'd like any clarification or further information.
Kind Regards!
could be various conditions like stroke, epilepsy, arrhythmia
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
a normal blood sugar excludes hypoglycemia, so the most likely causes are a cerebrovascular incident, a seizure or arrhythmia.
Cerebrovascular incidents may be permanent or transient. Loss of consciousness usually accompanies serious events and such a fast recovery is not expected.
Epilepsy may cause an incident of variable duration. Such incidents are commonly followed by confusion.
Arrhythmia may be transient as well and when the heart rhythm gets back to normal the patient may become conscious again. Depending on whether the brain was adequately fed during the incident or not, a confusional state may occur afterwards.
The high blood pressure is a common finding in cerebrovascular incidents but taking the blood pressure in a combative patient may give falsely high readings.
The doctors should investigate all three possibilities and of course search for other disorders (like electrolyte imbalance) with blood and radiological tests.
I hope you find my comments helpful!
You can contact me again, if you'd like any clarification or further information.
Kind Regards!
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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