Hi, I was diagnosed with renal artery stenosis last june out of the blue when my bp went up at a routine dental appt. I had normal bp and other values just that prior january (ekg, stress echo, carotid doppler, 24 hr bp monitor, holter monitor, cholesterol was a bit high 245). I did not want to go on meds, so I begged for a renin-aldosterone test and the aldosterone was up, so they did a renal doppler which showed a blocked in the left renal artery that was very severe. I had tons of problems trying 5 different types of bp meds - the worst were the calcium channel blockers (norvasc, plendil) as they sent me to the ER with a cluster headache so bad, I wanted to just die and they raised my bp to 250/135. This was on the lowest dosage of each. I was also vomiting. I tried atenolol but although it did not give me a headache, it made me hyper within 15 mins of taking it - completely eliminating my appetitie, and I couldn't eat at all - I was up for 2 days straight on 12.5mg. I have paradoxical reactions to meds as well as anaphylaxis which makes me a horrible patient to have to treat. I controlled by bp best I could naturally through omega 3's, and other things as well as food.
A family member found out she had fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and suggested I be checked out for that as well since this came out of the blue. I had another renal just recently, and it showed 80% blockage (I couldn't have an angiogram because I'm allergic to the dye and prednisone), which could be atherosclerotic (no way of telling without the angiogram; I did have an MRA with gadolinium, but they couldn't be sure of what they saw due to poor imaging). The renal showed that now my right artery may be narrowing as well which could be FMD. I also had a carotid doppler which showed my right artery is narrowed by it may be FMD (again can't tell for sure without the angiogram), and my left carotid is 20-30% blocked. My cholesterol is 173, my ldl down to 107 and triglycerides 61 and lp(a) normal. My ekg was normal and my echocardiogram was normal as well as a 64 slice ct scan measuring calcium which was zero. According to the cardiologist, who is specialized in renal, coronary and carotid artery stenosis and fibromuscular dysplasia, i do not have evidence of coronary artery disease at all.
So given my situation, I have to differ with the kenkeith's response. If I were you, I would ask for a stress test or stress/echo (echocardiogram is a way of cheating as the dr's say so you don't have to do an angiogram, and it will show if something is wrong). Perhaps you might want to ask about FMD as well - it is a little known disease which causes narrowing of the arteries. In my case, it showed plaque on the left carotid artery and no plaque, but narrowing, on the right - it is tortuous/looped which can be indicative of FMD.
It's important to find a cardiologist that knows about FMD, as my first set of dr's where I live, did not even know what I was talking about. I had to go to NYC to find a specialist in this area.
Good luck!
If you have carotid artery disease, you probably also have severe coronary artery disease. So, the risk factors for carotid artery disease are similar to those for coronary artery disease. The risks are the same but to identify the degree of occlusion with one group with another group at a different body location may not be very reliable.
The risk are high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides in the blood.
•High blood pressure
•Diabetes
•Smoking
•Family history of coronary artery disease
•Obesity
•Lack of exercise
Thanks for a good question!, stenosis of carotid v. coronary lesions and the effects respectfully:
"The results of stenosis of each coronary artery and LVEF (heart failure) were correlated to carotid artery stenosis but no association was found to cerebrovascular parameters. Only severity of coronary artery disease and the Gensini score (a scoring system for evaluating collateral circulation of the coronary arteries) associated with disturbed cerebrovascular reactivity. Carotid artery stenosis was associated with decreased cerebrovascular parameters.
>>>>Conclusions: Although atherosclerosis is a systemic disease our data support concepts of a heterogeneous distribution of the disease indicating protection of brain vessels (fewer strokes)".