13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-33

Sensitivity and specificity of head-up tilt testing with orciprenaline

Sven Reek, Daniela Polywka, Helmut U. Klein.
Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

Introduction

Syncope is a common medical problem and accounts for about 3% of all emergency room visits and up to 6% of general hospital admissions^1,2. Syncope has an extensive differential diagnosis including organic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and a variety of psychiatric and neurologic disorders. The vast majority of patients who experience syncope have no organic abnormalities³. In these cases neurally mediated mechanisms are the predominant cause of the syncopal spell^4-6. In patients with recurrent unexplained syncope with no suspected organic heart disease passive head-up tilt testing is the recommended diagnostic approach⁷. The ideal protocol for head-up tilt testing is still a matter of debate. We report our results with head-up tilt testing with pharmacological provocation in patients with recurrent syncope and apparently healthy control subjects.