What Causes High BP Along With Slurred Speech And Confusion?

Posted on Thu, 6 Aug 2015

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

Thu, 6 Aug 2015 Answered on

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : What would cause b/p to be 196/125' trouble using l hand a l hand, slurred speech and confusion. Er last night blood keg and ct were ok. Any ideas
He sees a family dr on Thursday what questions should we ask to get a full work up

Answered by Dr. Anantharamakrishnan (35 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Needs more tests and frequent follow up

Detailed Answer:
Hi friend
Welcome to Health Care Magic

This pressure is quite high and needs extensive investigations – basic kidney function; at times kidney blood vessels… / Hormones especially epinephrine and allied ones – to exclude Pheochromocytoma (adrenal lesion) and so on… / electrolytes…

A normal CT is reassuring… but may need repetition after several hours in some people. An MRI and MRA (MRI angiography for neck and brain blood vessels – done at the same sitting) may show some clues. Follow up by Neurologist is necessary in view of speech slurring and confusion – hypertensive encephalopathy or focal brain lesion needs evaluation

A nephrologist (kidney specialist) or cardiologist will be best suited to evaluate the blood pressure.

Discuss with the doctor – for referral to a tertiary care multispecialty hospital / ECG, ECHOcardiography, MRA and hormones assay…

Good luck
God bless you

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