Hi everybody,
Still going strong 6 months after my DAVF embolization. Follow up MRA showed no signs of recurrence or other AVFs. So i'm really excited about that. Going to get married this spring and try to work on a family.
One issue I have had a difficult time finding an answer to is as follows: For 8 years leading up to my DAVF bleed/discovery/embolizaton, I was on various blood pressure medicines. I have always had a difficult time keeping my BP below 120/80. Have had various kidney and cardiac texts over the years, and no culprit has been found. The dr's chalked it up to primary hypertension, but that diagnosis makes no sense because I have no family history no do I have any of the lifestyle issues that would cause it.
I wanted to know if anybody else has experienced this. I would like to try to ween off of my bp meds due to their side effects, but as I understand, your body becomes somewhat addicted to them and there is a rebound effect which you have to work through.
Since my DAVF had retrograde venus flow (type 3+), I would like to think that from my limited understanding, this could have been a cause of hypertension. I would appreciate any help on this matter that you could provide.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I wish you the best of luck with your condition.
Scott
Sorry I'm not a doc but I thought I would answer as I had a similar question which was recently answered. (Although mine was the other way round!)
I've always had low blood pressure for as long as I can remember (at least since early teens as that was when I was told it was the reason I occasionally almost passed out).
When I found out I had an AVM in my head, I wondered if this was the reason for my low blood pressure, as I the artery feeding it was massively enlarged, and I could see the blood quickly passing through the AVM during my angiogram.
Earlier this month I went in to see my regular neurosurgeon accompanied by 2 colleages to discuss my angio, so I thought I would ask them whether my AVM could be a reason I have low blood pressure.
It took around a split second for all of them to unanimously respond that it my cerebral AVM would not be causing me to have low blood pressure.
If I was in your shoes, I would try to speak to a neurologist to find out if your AVF could be affecting your blood pressure, and the possible effects of changes of any medication.
From what I understand is the high flow malformations, which are the avm’s, cause high pressure back to the heart and lead to a higher reading on both systolic and diastolic. I am actually having the same issue. The only thing that would discredit that is our bodies should naturally adjust to things like this. Saying the avm is the cause would totally be up to your dr. As a precaution don’t stop the blood pressure medication without consulting your drs. Some of them can build up in your system and kind of put you in shock if you don’t wean off of them correctly.