Abstract:
Background: Head-up tilt-table-testing is said to be the gold standard for diagnosing neurally mediated syncope, which is the most common type of syncope, if the patient does not suffer from cardiac disease. During this examination a vasovagal response with presyncope or syncope is provoked. In some cases extreme variations with asystole, atrioventricular block (>= II°) or convulsion are seen. The purpose of this study is to analyse the type, the frequency and specification for age and gender of response as well as the evaluation of possible complications, answering the question, wether tilt-table-test is a safe method.
Methods: From 11/94 to 12/04 1.892 tilt-table-tests, partly with application of isoprenaline (n=430) or administration of nitroglycerine (n=30) were performed and retrospectively analysed.
Results: In the first test 272 patients (24,8%) had syncope or presyncope, occurring in average after 16 min. 59 patients (16,4%), who were stimulated for the first time with isoprenaline (n=360) showed a positive response, provocation by nitroglycerine (n=16) brought a positive result in 8 cases (50%). There was a significantly raised incident of positive results in younger patients in the non-stimulated (p<0,0001) and with nitroglycerine stimulated (p=0,02) test. No gender differences were observed.
In 96 patients (5,1%) extreme variations and complications as followed were seen: 48 cases of asystole (of which 25 were associated with convulsive component), 6 cases of higher atrioventricular block (>= II°), one case of higher sinuatrial block, 21 patients showed convulsive components without asystole, 5 supraventricular tachycardia, 10 cases of tachycardia due to atrial fibrillation and 2 patients with a hypertensive crisis. In addition there was vomiting in 3 cases. The rate of asystole was significantly increased in younger patients: the group of patients 21-30 years old showed 48% of syncopes associated with asystole. Patients, older than 70 years showed no asystole (p<0,0001). Convulsions were mainly seen in patients < 40 years old. Atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia was seen more in rather patients, atrioventricular block was independent of age group. It was possible to complete all kind of events safely by terminating the examination. In some cases of asystole, application of precordial thump was necessary, but chest compression or CPR was never needed.
Conclusion: Altogether there were merely "minor complications" occurring during tilt-table-test. There was no permanent impairment. Subsequently this type of examination is a safe method for diagnosing neurally mediated syncope.