Is it common for elderly to have low diastolic pressure?

Published

me and my classmates went to a senior center today to take blood pressure for the elderly.

I took blood pressure for ~11 people.

130/80 yes

118/58 yes

136/70 yes

154/56 yes

110/60 yes

104/54 yes

121/54 yes

126/58 no

98/52 no

124/38 no

140/50 yes

the YES/NO means if they are on medication or not

i find it interesting how their DBP were so low as i was expecting them to be high..

especially there is one who have 38 for DBP

i tried to look up causes online.. didn't find much info. maybe i used the wrong key term..

is it normal for the elderly? or could it be the BP medication they are on? as if it were to treat systolic HTN, it could effect their DPB as well?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

A widened pulse pressure is fairly common in elderly people who have hypertension, especially if they also have heart or kidney disease or diabetes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_pressure explains this fairly well. And yes, antihypertensive meds can and do lower the diastolic BP in conjunction with the systolic BP.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

old people usually come with baggage

co morbidities

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion