Brief report
Accuracy and mean duration of different protocols of head-up tilt testing

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Abstract

Based on the results of our study, >95% of patients with a positive passive tilt test are also positive during 3 μg/min, and especially 5 μg/min, isoproterenol tilt test. A proposed time-saving protocol would be to initiate the test with an isoproterenol infusion and to perform a 45-minute passive tilt only in those patients with a positive 5 μg/min (an infusion rate reported to have an excessive low specificity) isoproterenol tilt test, and to consider only those with symptoms associated with objective changes during this latter test as “finally positive.” An alternative option would be to perform a 45-minute passive tilt only in those patients with a negative 3 μg/min isoproterenol tilt test.

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  • Comparison between isoproterenol and nitroglycerin sensitized head-upright tilt in patients with unexplained syncope and negative or positive passive head-up tilt response

    2002, American Journal of Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    The response to passive tilt was considered to be the reference response for further comparisons with the drug-sensitized tilt. The rate of a positive response to passive tilt (34%) was within the range generally reported in the literature.2,15–17 NTG-tilt was performed according to protocols cited in the literature and yielded a percentage of positive responses in patients with a negative response to passive tilt (35%), which is comparable to the previously reported range.8,11–13,18,19

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Dr. Blanc's address is: Service de Cardiologie, Hôspital Morvan — 5, Avenue Foch, 29269, Brest Cedex, France.

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