THE HEAD-UP TILT TEST IN PATIENTS WITH UNEXPLAINED SYNCOPE OR PRESYNCOPE

Background: Syncope is a relatively frequent medical event and its assessment is deemed an important aspect of medical practice in general medicine and cardiology. The present study had two main purposes: first, to assess the clinical history and characteristics of patients referred to our cardiology department with syncope or presyncope symptoms and second, to analyze the results of the head-up tilt test (HUTT) and its relations with other study parameters. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was performed on 210 consecutive patients with unexplained syncope or presyncope referred to our cardiology department between 2002 and 2011. After history taking and physical examination, including age, sex, presenting symptoms, underlying disorders, history of drug taking, and orthostatic blood pressure measurements, holter monitoring, electrophysiological study, and neurological evaluation were performed in the patients with structural cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease. The HUTT was performed using an electrically controlled tilt table with a footboard for weight bearing. Results: Among the study participants, 193 (92.38%) patients had a positive result and among them, vasodepressor and mixed type were the common types. Study variables had no significant differences between the patients with positive or negative HUTT results. Conclusion: Although the HUTT is suitable in syncope management, our study variables had no significant impacts on the results of this test and could not predict its results. (Iranian Heart Journal 2012; 13(3):16-21 ).