my brother, again.........

[ruthienc1]

Thanks for all your advice in the recent past concerning my brother and his post-AVR difficulties. I just got off of the phone with him and he mentioned that he's been having some trouble with high blood pressure- kind of being not very consistent. Before AVR it was well controlled, but isn't now (sometimes as high as 170 or 180....). I had mild HBP before AVR and it has shown remarkable improvement since surgery, so I sort of expected the same for him. He's 8 weeks out. He's also had some congestive heart failure which is improving, thankfully. What I'm worried about is the source of all these problems: he chose be part of a clinical trial with a new tissue valve (Trifecta, by St Jude) and I'm wondering if this could be causing his problems. I suggested he call the study liaison person and report these issues so that they will at least know, but I don't know if he will. Any and all thoughts are welcome!

 

[catwoman]

Ruthie:

I wouldn't think the valve itself would be causing problems.
What do his doctors say about the yo-yoing HBP?

 

[ruthienc1]

She is working on it...I think she is at a loss at the moment to explain it, esp. since it was fine before/