If someone has Parkinson’s disease, and low-mod blood pressure, could they still suffer a stroke?
My aunt had Parkinson’s disease and was found one day with facial drooping on one side. No scans were performed to confirm if she had a stroke or not. It was just assumed she had one. No treatment was given toward her recovery and she developed pneumonia quickly and died within days. Mind you, nothing was given to treat pneumonia either. She was previously fairly active (got out and about with me for dinner and shopping etc) and although her face was drooping the stroke diagnosis baffled me as her blood pressure was always low-moderate. Has anyone heard of someone with low-mod blood pressure suffering stroke or even those with Parkinson’s as no one in the know has yet given me any answers. Thanks.
Tagged with: blood pressure • parkinson • pneumonia • shopping • stroke diagnosis • suffering
Filed under: blood pressure treatment
Although high blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke, it is not the only one. Yes, it is possible for someone with Parkinson’s to have a stroke just as it is possible for the brain trauma of a stroke to be a cause of PD.
http://stroke.about.com/od/unwantedeffectsofstroke/a/parkinsons.htm
So the two are not mutually exclusive. And having one will not protect from the other:
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/6/839
http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic20538.html
I realize the high blood pressure is mentioned in the linked Q & A but it not the only risk factor:
http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic121355.html
Personally I would be more concerned about reasoning/logic??? behind not treating a PD patient who appeared to have had a stroke since there is treatment in the form of, among other things, Amantadine. Were you present during her medical non-treatment? I ask because it doesn’t compute. Did she already have respiratory distress? Did she have muscle stiffness/rigidity? Did she have a living will? There appear to be some unknowns here that we don’t know. And by we I mean you and the rest of us.
I am sorry to hear about your Aunt. If she went out for dinner and shopping, her PD had not progressed to the point where she should have come down with aspiration pnuemonia, the common form in PD. So the pneumonia resulted from ___??
But yes, there are more risk factors for stroke than high blood pressure. And although it has been thought that PD may offer some stroke protection, "rules" never seem to apply to everyone.