7Demographics of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in adult population
Abstract Background Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a dysautonomia of unclear etiology. POTS is defined as a form of orthostatic intolerance characterized by an increase in heart rate ≥ 30 bpm or to a heart rate ≥120 bpm upon standing. The clinical manifestations include dizziness, palpitations fatigue, anxiety, nausea and fainting. There is a paucity of data available on adult population. This study aims to identify and evaluate demographic features of adult patients with POTS in a large tertiary specialty clinic. Methods 447 patients diagnosed with POTS between 8/21/2018 and 8/20/2019 were randomly selected from our electronic records, and clinical data obtained during initial outpatient evaluation was reviewed retrospectively for race, gender and age. Results Out of 447 patients, 407 (91%) are female and 40 (9%) are male. Amongst them, 417 (93%) patients are White Caucasian of which 381 (91%) are female and 36 (9%) are male; 12 (3%) are Black/African-American of which 11 (92%) are female and 1 (8%) is male; 10 (2%) are Hispanic of which 100% are females; 4 (1%) are Asian of which 2 (50%) are females and 2 (50%) are males and 4 from other races of which 3 (75%) were female and 1 (25%) was male. Patients had a mean age of 32.9 with a standard deviation of 11.96. Conclusions POTS predominates in females, middle age population, and may be heavily prevalent in White Caucasians. Key messages Further clinical studies on more geographically spread populations are encouraged to support our findings on racial prevalen