Background:
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a form of dysautonomia that is estimated to impact between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 Americans and millions more around the world. Patients chronically have symptoms that are worse with upright posture and that improve with recumbence. Symptoms often include orthostatic intolerance such as dizziness, fatigue, excessive sweating and many others. The aim of this study is to determine the variation of symptoms early morning after wake up and evening at 4 PM.
Methods:
The Autonomic nervous system questionnaire consisting of eight POTS symptoms palpitations, headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath(SOB), chest pain, weakness, blurred vision and heaviness of feet was handover to the patients at our clinic. 42 POTS patients participated in the study, participated patients had been asked to scale their symptoms early morning after wake up and evening at 4 PM. Symptoms were defined 0 as Never,1 as mild,2 as moderate,3 as severe ,4 as extreme and 5 impairing daily function and living.
Results:
Out of 42 POTS patients 90% are female (38/42, age 31.74±10.67) and 10% are males (4/42, age 30.75±13.20), symptoms were scaled early morning after wake up vs symptoms scaled evening at 4 pm results in mean±SD and Anova P value. Palpitations 1.69±1.32 vs 2.45±1.38 (P =0.01), Dizziness 2.40±1.38 vs 2.67±1.46 (P =0.40), Chest pain 0.93±1.02 vs 1.52±1.27 (P=0.02), SOB 1.36±1.32 vs 1.81±1.40 (P=0.13), Weakness 2.79±1.37 vs 3.12±1.38 (P=0.27), Blurred vision 1.38±1.29 vs 1.48±1.27 (P=0.73), Headaches 1.74±1.36 vs 2.52±1.38 (P =0.01), Heaviness of feet 0.95±1.19 vs 1.43±1.53 (P =0.11).
Conclusion:
Our study results demonstrated that the patients with POTS had significant variation in symptoms Palpitations, Chest pain, Headaches in evenings when compared to early morning after wake up.