RESUMO
Objective To study the safety of tilt table test (TTT) in elderly patients. Methods Among the 785 subjects examined for TTT, 110 were elders with an average age of( 65?4) years, ranging from 60 to 82. Out of the 110 elder subjects, 39 syncope patients were due to unknown reasons, 13 due to heart or brain diseases and 58 were non syncope subjects. We conducted base tilt table test (BTTT) in all patients and additional isoproterenol tilt table test (ITTT) in 18 patients. The BTTT protocol included 60～80 degrees upright tilt for 25 minutes and the ITTT protocol included isoproterenol infusion at 2-4 ?g/min for 10 minutes. Results 13 out of 39 patients with unknown reasons had a positive BTTT and 6 out of 10 patients had a positive ITTT, respectively; Among the 31 out of 110 positive TTT patients, 17 (54.8%) showed a vasodepressor response, 4 (12.9%) a cardioinhibitory response and 10 (32.3%) mixed response. Serious abnormal responses were not observed. Conclusions (1) TTT is a safe and effective method for diagnosing the vasovagal syncope (VVS) in elderly patients; (2) Because of its safety, BTTT could be chosen for identifying the VVS in the elderly heart or brain disease patients complicated with syncope.
