What does being diagnosed with vasospastic disease mean?
Is it just a mild condition of little consequence, or does it mean I will be more at risk of things like stroke in the future.
I have just had my third child. The obstetrician is keen to see me put onto a medication like propranolol, but is leaving it up to my specialist physician who I know has a dislike for the long-term use of it.
I took it for nearly a year, between my last two pregnancies to lower my blood pressure (BP) and get rid of frozen/tingling patches on my face. These generally come on the right, but during worse bouts spread to the left.
At worst, my tongue can be affected which in turn can make speech clumsy.
I have had these patches come back after a brief lull when the baby was born. My BP is okay at 120/80. Medium-term use of low dose aspirin seems to help, but is ongoing use a concern for someone my age?
Feedback in the medication area would be good, but I am mostly interested in the long-term consequences of vasospastic disease.
It sounds like you've really been through the mill. Having babies is work enough without the additional complications that you've had.
I'm not clear what the diagnosis of ‘vasospastic disease’ means in your case, because it is more a description of what is happening to blood vessels, than a specific condition. Let me give you some background.
Vasospasm refers to the narrowing of a blood vessel, usually an artery, by tightening or spasm of the muscles within the vessel's wall.
This narrowing imposes a restriction in the volume of blood flowing through the vessel. The process is happening normally in everybody everyday, as our circulation adapts to different situations – such as changes in posture, exercise and temperature.
Stress, shock, illness, bleeding and certain medications can all precipitate more than the usual vasospasm.
However, some people have blood vessels that are a little trigger-happy when it comes to constricting, even in normal situations.
Examples of this might include a condition known as Raynaud's phenomenon, when hands and feet get very cold, change colour and go numb, even on a warm day.
Another might be migraine, when there is spasm in the vessels in the brain prior to a migraine headache.
This can sometimes be associated with a temporary loss of feeling or function in a part of the body, and the most common symptom in this respect is a visual disturbance that looks like bright zigzag lines.
Vasospasm can affect other organs, but only very rarely.
Beta-blockers, such as propranolol, are quite effective in the prevention of recurrent migraine when trigger factors are also avoided.
Paradoxically, beta-blockers make Raynaud's phenomenon worse (but I won't get into that here)! Aspirin can be effective in treating migraine, providing it doesn't cause indigestion or a stomach upset.
Similar symptoms to migraine can be experienced with pre-eclampsia (when they can indicate a temporary increased risk of stroke), but they settle after giving birth and the risk settles too.
The long-term consequences of pre-eclampsia have more to do with high blood pressure than anything else. High blood pressure (hypertension) does increase the risk of stroke, heart and kidney disease later in life.
Your blood pressure measurement seems okay, so hopefully that is one particular problem you can forget!
The NetDoctor Medical Team
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