about blood pressure

melmarie23, MSN, RN · May 17, 2009

did you take another reading? If that is atypical for her, I would have tried to get another BP measurement a few minutes later.

What was the pt admitted for? Was she experiencing any pain? Sometimes that can make someone's BP rise. Did she seem/say she was anxious? That can make BP rise too.

What were her labs? I'd want to know how her kidney's were functioning because kidney disease can also cause high BP.

There are many things that could be happening with this pt. Do you have any more information that you can share?

shoegalRN, RN · May 17, 2009

Did she recently have surgery? When a pt is recovering from surgery, they have an increase in BP due to the stress of surgery on the body and the pain they are in.

Does this patient have a fluid volume overload? Did she have fluids hanging that may have been running too fast? And increase in fluid volume can increase your BP.

I agree about her labs. Is her kidney function within normal range? If this patient is experiencing kidney problems (i.e. Acute renal failure), then it would cause an increase in BP.

Is there anything else going on in her history?

chicago878 · May 17, 2009

Isolated systolic HTN (classic presentation!) common in elderly and most likely caused by coarctation of the aorta. CXR and echo I suspect will help support or r/o the dx if the reading persists. This could become a hypertensive emergency.

2bNurse22* · May 21, 2009

She is waaaay above normal.

Yeah , check her history.

I know kidney failure and retained fluid can increase BP

If she smokes , over-weight , eats high cholestrol foods , doesn't

exercise...oh he medications.