High BP

[Tweeter]

My doctor recently told me my blood pressure is 160/100. How would I know if I had a blood clot? How do you test for that?

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

A blood test, D dimer test.

[WaynG]

D-dimer is best done within a short period after a clot is suspected. However, other factors can give you falsely raised D-dimer results, eg lack of movement, post operative and some inflammatory illnesses, etc It's best that a scan for clot detection.

Best speak to the cardiology team for a non invasive cardio radiography scan.

[JennyRx]

High Bp isn’t necessarily related to a blood clot. It’s unfortunately very common.

Have you any symptoms that would lead you to believe you have a blood clot? Any other health conditions?

You won’t have a cardiologist if you’ve had a diagnosis of hypertension and no other cardiac problems . That’s all dealt with by your GP. So ask your GP.

[Happyrosie]

as has been said - it’s up nto your doc. At your practice this might be dealt with by a nurse or similar so be guided by your receptionist.

Before you see anyone however please read up about blood pressure on the website of the specialist charity Blood Pressure UK.

[Tweeter in reply to Happyrosie]

Thanks

[fishonabike]

Others have already described the test/s for blood clots - but what makes you think you have a blood clot and where do you think it is?blood clots usually obstruct the circulation of blood to parts of the body, so there would be signs that this is happening, like pain, swelling, loss of function - these signs would allert you and medics that there is something wich needs attention

[Tweeter]

I thought that high BP was caused by a blockage in a blood vessel. It’s not very high 160/100.

[fishonabike in reply to Tweeter]

as far as i am aware there would be other symptoms which would be more alarming than a raised BP - and there are also plenty of other causes of raised BP as others have explained

[JennyRx in reply to Tweeter]

no it’s not caused by a blood clot. Please go to the NHS website and read up about hypertension.

[serenfach]

Did the GP take the blood pressure three times? Were you sitting quietly with your legs uncrossed? There is a thing called White coat blood pressure that makes your BP higher just because the GP is testing it. Did they use the old fashioned machine or the wrist pressure? (mine are vastly different on the cuff machine).

Buy your own. Sit quietly at any time of the day and take the measurement three times over 5 minutes. Find the average and this will give you a much more accurate reading. Write it down so you can chart it over a few weeks. The GPs like this.

High BP can be caused by lots of things - stress, a high salt diet etc. So dont worry about clots, just see if your readings show any pattern. Good luck.

[Judithdalston]

I’d advise getting your own BP monitor they are fairly cheap and may last you, and rest of the family for years. I’ve had 3.5 years with high BP and HR from Long Covid and got put on 5 BP drugs, and been able to supply GP, and other consultants, with say a whole week of BP/HR measurements as proof of problem. More recently also able to do the NASA sitting/ standing test to show there was a problem with postural hypotension not normally picked up in the surgery, and got referred to a tilt table specialist ( which confirmed problems that surgery’s BP, or ecgs, just couldn’t detect).

[adiwillow]

I would imagine this is due to anxiety. My Blood pressure spiked at 196/116 when being taken at the doctors, and at 190/116 whilst waiting for an exercise stress test. Yet at home, my blood pressure is 110/70.

I would advise getting a home machine.. they can be bought for around £25-60 .