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

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-37

Increased salt intake prevents vasovagal syncope during head-up tilt test

Cinzia Forleo, Andrea Passantino, Luana Ligurgo*, Francesco Massari, Paolo Totaro, Filippo Mastropasqua, Maria Vittoria Pitzalis*, Paolo Rizzon*.
Cardiology "S. Maugeri" Foundation, IRCCS, Cassano, *Institute of Cardiology, University of Bari, Italy

Introduction

Vasovagal or neurocardiogenic syncope¹ represents a relatively common disease characterized by sudden and transient loss of consciousness associated with hypotension and/or bradycardia². Vasovagal syncope has a great clinical relevance as it generally appears in young subjects without any cardiac as well as non-cardiac disease. The tilt-up test (TUT) is a usefull tool³ in order to address the diagnosis and the treatment of neurocardiogenic syncope. The choice of treating vasovagal syncope and the selection of the optimal treatment is still debated⁴. The indication to implant permanent pacemaker is questionable: infact, several studies have demonstrated this treatmente to be not effective in preventing hypotension and syncope during TUT⁵. Many drugs have been used with contrastant results⁴. A possible pathophysiological mechanism of vasovagal syncope is a relative reduction of plasma volume⁶. This study was conducted to evaluate whether in patients with vasovagal syncope and with positive and reproducible tilt table test, an increased chronic salt intake⁷, by increasing the plasma volume, is able to prevent syncope or pre-syncope during TUT and spontaneous relapses.