Suggest Ways To Treat Swelling In The Feet And Ankles

Posted on Fri, 29 Dec 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 29 Dec 2017 Answered on

Wed, 6 Jun 2018 Last reviewed on

Question : How can I reduce swelling of feet and ankles. I am not overweight. Is this sign of heart failure?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (40 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend performing some tests:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would explain that swelling of feet and ankles could be related to different possible causes:

- increased fluid retention (heart failure, kidney or liver disease)
- chronic venous insufficiency
- drug adverse effects (calcium channel blockers, etc.)
- diabetes
- arthritis.

Do you have pain in this region?
Do you suffer from diabetes?
I would like to know your current therapy. Have you made any changes to your therapy lately?

Coming to this point, I would recommend consulting with your attending physician and performing some tests:

- a chest X ray study
- a resting ECG and cardiac ultrasound
- NT-proBNP levels for heart failure
- fasting glucose
- blood electrolytes
- kidney and liver function tests
- PCR, ESR for inflammation.

If all the above tests result normal, a Doppler ultrasound of the leg vessels would be necessary to investigate for chronic venous insufficiency.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

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