kozo asked:
My friend is a long time old female blood pressure patient she is on medication and an eldery person has swollen legs and sore please if any one knows what she can do to relieve the pain she finds dificult to walk and recently she has been diagonised with sugar. She is on medication now for both bp and sugar thank you life saver
My friend is a long time old female blood pressure patient she is on medication and an eldery person has swollen legs and sore please if any one knows what she can do to relieve the pain she finds dificult to walk and recently she has been diagonised with sugar. She is on medication now for both bp and sugar thank you life saver
There are certain medications for blood pressure called calcium channel blockers (ex amlodipine) that can cause swelling in the legs, but if she has diabetes and hypertension and either smokes or used to smoke she probably has some degree of peripheral vascular disease and should probably be looked at by a vascular specialist.
High blood pressure and diabetes are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease which can cause leg swelling. She should keep her legs elevated when not walking. A visit to the doctor is needed as she may need medications to reduce the swelling. Low sodium diet helps reduce fluid retention.
Her doctor can prescribe diuretics like lasix to help her. She should talk to him. Keeping her feet up will also help. If she can lie back in a lounger or couch with her feet up it will help her heart drain them. As people age their hearts can weaken which will also cause that swelling.
The functions of kidneys and heart have to be examined.
Diabetic nephropathy is kidney disease or damage that results as a complication of diabetes.
Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure, is a life-threatening condition in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the rest of the body.
In both disease conditions, there will be swelling of the feet and ankles.
Diagnostic tests that may be performed include the following:
* Blood tests such as a CBC or blood chemistry
* ECG
* Chest x-ray or extremity x-ray
* Urinalysis
One must never assume oedema in the legs is the result of heart failure, this needs to be investigated even though there is a most likely obvious cause in your friends case.
Both hypertension and diabetes are risk factors for congestive cardiac failure, but it could also be an infection associated with her diabetes too. Certain medication like Ca channel blockers can do this as well as can certain drugs she taking for her diabetes such as pioglitazone and rosiglitazone which can both exacerbate heart failure and pulmonary oedema . You said “legS” so I presume the swelling is in both legs? Bilateral swelling is usually due to systemic conditions, such as cardiac failure, whereas unilateral swelling is often the result of local trauma, venous disease or lymphatic disease etc.
Basically, her Doctor needs to run tests to find out exactly why she has this swelling, or rather, to exclude other possibilities. It could also be the result of pressure on the kidneys, anaemia and even hypothyroidism. But because she has preexisting high blood pressure and she is diabetic, the most likely explanation is that this is congestive cardiac failure and/or obesity.
Her Doctor needs to do a urine test, a general blood count, renal function test, liver function test, thyroid function test, chest X-ray to rule out pulmonary oedema and an ECG to exclude heart failure.
Treatment depends on the cause.
For now, encourage your friend to elevate her legs. Also ask her Doctor to do a Doppler and if there is good arterial flow, compression stockings would be advised too.
If she is overweight then she MUST lose weight and if I am correct about the cause being CCF, then diuretics+ace are indicated.