Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
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Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Becca Stevens and Shannon M. Machmiller
South Dakota State University
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Introduction
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is defined as “the presence of orthostatic intolerance symptoms associated with a heart rate increase of at least 30 beats/min (or a rate that exceeds 120 beats/min) that occurs within the first 10 minutes or standing or head-up tilt, which is seen in the absence of other chronic debilitating disorders, prolonged bed rest, or medications that impair vascular autonomic tone” by Blair Grubb, Yousef Kanjwal and Dan Kosinski (2006) in their article “The Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: A Concise Guide to Diagnosis and Management” (p. 108). This paper will present an informational overview of POTS to include the epidemiology, pathophysiology, environmental influences and possible causes, clinical manifestations and treatments as well as a personal account of the disorder.
Epidemiology
In the United States, more than 500,000 people are affected by POTS (Fu, VanGundy, Galbreath et al. 2010). POTS is more prevalent in women (5:1 ratio), primarily pre-menopausal, and is also more common in younger individuals (Thieben, Sandroni, Sletten et al. 2007). An individual that has POTS has a smaller stroke volume and part of the reason it is believed that POTS is more prevalent in women is due to a smaller heart size, which therefore would have a smaller stroke volume (Crawford, 2010). Research shows that the ages of people with POTS are most commonly between the ages of 15 and 50 years old (National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, 2011). According to a Mayo Clinic study 90.5% of individuals with POTS reported having a preceding illness while 9.5% of individuals reported acquiring POTS after a surgery. Therefore there is a high importance of staying healthy in order to try to avoid acquiring POTS. The exact cause of POTS at this...
Becca Stevens and Shannon M. Machmiller
South Dakota State University
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Introduction
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is defined as “the presence of orthostatic intolerance symptoms associated with a heart rate increase of at least 30 beats/min (or a rate that exceeds 120 beats/min) that occurs within the first 10 minutes or standing or head-up tilt, which is seen in the absence of other chronic debilitating disorders, prolonged bed rest, or medications that impair vascular autonomic tone” by Blair Grubb, Yousef Kanjwal and Dan Kosinski (2006) in their article “The Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: A Concise Guide to Diagnosis and Management” (p. 108). This paper will present an informational overview of POTS to include the epidemiology, pathophysiology, environmental influences and possible causes, clinical manifestations and treatments as well as a personal account of the disorder.
Epidemiology
In the United States, more than 500,000 people are affected by POTS (Fu, VanGundy, Galbreath et al. 2010). POTS is more prevalent in women (5:1 ratio), primarily pre-menopausal, and is also more common in younger individuals (Thieben, Sandroni, Sletten et al. 2007). An individual that has POTS has a smaller stroke volume and part of the reason it is believed that POTS is more prevalent in women is due to a smaller heart size, which therefore would have a smaller stroke volume (Crawford, 2010). Research shows that the ages of people with POTS are most commonly between the ages of 15 and 50 years old (National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, 2011). According to a Mayo Clinic study 90.5% of individuals with POTS reported having a preceding illness while 9.5% of individuals reported acquiring POTS after a surgery. Therefore there is a high importance of staying healthy in order to try to avoid acquiring POTS. The exact cause of POTS at this...