Should BP Medication Dosage Be Increased For High BP?

Posted on Sat, 24 May 2014

Question: My atenolol is 25mg , fosinipril 10mg 1/2. Bid and torsemede 20 mg every third da. My bp was 175 over 90 . Should I increase my dosage of any of them before seeing the cardiologist tomorrow?

Answered by Dr. Jorge Brenes-Salazar (45 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Hold the course

Detailed Answer:
Dear Mr Rabino,

Thanks for the query. Given your age, your goal blood pressure should be less than 140/90 most of the time, so indeed you are not at goal. The best course of action will be to take your medications as is and review them with your cardiologist tomorrow; I presume that he will do certain changes, such as increasing the dose of atenolol, changing atenolol for a more potent medication like carvedilol or metoprolol, and also increasing fosinopril. He will want to see your kidney function before making changes to any of these (all of those medications can interact with renal function).

Hope this helps, wish you the best,

Dr Brenes-Salazar MD
Mayo Clinic MN
Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Cardiology

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar