Risk of Pulmonary Hypertension? -

I am a 32 yr old male that has recently been diagnosed with hypertension. I am on HCTZ to control my BP. Normal range is 124/83 with it occasionally going to 144/87. I had a stress test done as well, but everything came back normal. I still am out of breath after running 2-3 miles with some mild pain in my chest, and I can fill my heart pounding. It also seems that I am always tired. I was wondering if I could have some of the signs of possible pulmonary hypertension and the doctors have not caught it yet?

Your cuff BP represents your systemic pressure, which is ok. The pressure if elevated in the arteries in the lungs would lead to a diagnosis of pulmonary (arterial) hypertension. If this truly is the case, that would open up a whole new can of worms as to why you have it and you would need to undergo a full battery of tests to rule out the more common causes. Pulmonary arterial hypertension can be easily diagnosed via a right heart catheterization or less invasively by a simple transthoracic echocardiogram. You haven t said anything that would raise my suspicion of PAH in your case, but obtaining an echo is not unreasonable. Talk to your doctor.

124/83 is not hypertension - it is pretty close to ideal (120/80) - To me you have no signs of pulmonary hypertension. I would recommend however that you purchase a home blood pressure monitor - that way you will know whether your true bp is around 124/83, and in which case you would have white coat hypertension - i.e. bp goes up when measured by the doctor. You do not need bp meds if your bp is 124/83. Lowering your bp anymore will not alter feeling a ponding heart after running 2-3 miles (that in itself is pretty good lol, not to mention normal). If you are TRULY concerned about pulmonary hypertension then discuss it with your Dr who will likely give you a clean bill of health - i am not qualified (yet) but it sounds like you have some cardiac paranoia, which is not being helped by having anti-hypertensives when your BP is fine. xx

HCTZ is hydroclorothiazide, a anti-hypertensive/diuretic generally prescribed to those that have hypertension but particularly CHF (congestive heart failure) among other disease processes. CHF shows on an xray as an enlarged heart with pulmonary edema. IF and only IF you have CHF, the shortness of breath is caused by the pulmonary edema. Test that you would have to do are chest xray, and BNP (it would be elevated). That being said, I would be out of breath and have chest pain if I ran 2-3 miles. Chest pain (angina) is caused by insufficient oxygen supply to the heart. When exercising too much, you go from an aerobic state (oxygen in fueling the muscles) to an anaerobic state. Depleting your body of oxygen...not good for hypertension. Go talk to your doc...we can only give theories.