First Tilt Table Test

[Sophiab123]

I'm going in to the hospital to get my first ever tilt table test soon! I was told the appointment was 2 hours. I thought the test was only 45 minutes, why would the doctors need 2 hours for the test? I also found that some doctors give the patient nitroglycerin. Do the all give nitro? Or are you given an option if you want to receive nitro or not? I have almost no idea what to expect and I'm pretty nervous. What are you even supposed to do for 45 minutes? Do you just stare at a wall and wait to faint? If any of you have experience can you share your story?

[Bigskyfam]

Registration, hooking you up, laying horizontal for 45 min before tilt. My test was 5 min long. Hit 160 without meds from 60 laying. I was fasting. They gave me juice and graham crackers after and peanut butter. Sending good vibes your way. It seems everyone has a diff experience. I'm glad folks will comment after me.

[Sam1]

In the process of dx'ing by doctors now; few years ago I started having SVT's, ended up having two cardiac ablations in a year.  SVT's went away but all the other stuff hangs around.  Thought it was cardiac only, but I kept asking why does the cardiologist say it's just palps, the gastroenterologist say it's just IBS and the primary care dr. just say it's anxiety.  Made no sense.  Episodes come and go in pockets, I may be fine for 3-4 months then out of the blue I'm just down for 2-3 weeks at a time.

One ER visit (lucky to work at a hospital next to Vanderbilt Univ.) this fresh off the boat resident suggested it may be autonomic issues.  No one had mentioned that in 3 years of doctor's visits and surgery.  Had a TTT last September and when they started recording for the baseline I was having PVC's and arrhythmias (hadn't even moved to the test yet), had trouble doing the breath test thing but my heart rate didn't change much when they started standing me up.  Electrophysiologist said I had no issues because there were no abnormalities outside of low BP when standing.

Recently I started having issues again and did not realize that melatonin is a big no-no for people with POTS, and the symptoms started when I started taking that again for sleep help.  It made no sense to me, but working in a hospital, I spoke to one of the cardiologists (not my doctor) and told him about the BPM jumping from 60-100~ when standing sometimes (have an FDA approved ECG device on my phone to record), and all the other symptoms and he instantly told me to mention POTS to my dr. to see what they thought.  Never heard of or imagined anything of the nature.  I've got an implanted heart monitor that the cardiologist said always shows fine, all the ER visits my blood work shows fine, and they were trying to tell me that the TTT is fine too because I didn't exhibit the specific BPM rate spike at that specific time.

Point being, the TTT may not be the determining factor in this situation.  I try not to self-diagnose, but there is a huge difference in educating yourself and self-diagnosing.  Your TTT may show fine at that specific point in time.  Don't let that singular test be the factor in your diagnosis.  It's just one of many.  The TTT is a boring event that is just one of the many hassles that we must endure, it was no different than having an episode at home, except it was on a hard hospital table.

 

[Amalia01]

Here are two links that give you details about autonomic testing.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196175/

http://www.jove.com/video/2502/quantitative-autonomic-testing

 

[Lily]

Unfortunately yes, you have to stand leaning against the tilted table, stare at the wall, and wait for symptoms to happen.  Think of it as an opportunity to practice patience, or meditate, or pray, or something.  One of my TTTs featured silent and serious staff/doctors, but the second featured chatty and talkative staff/doctors.  Its not as bad if the people are chatty.  If they are looking for POTS it might not need to go on for 45 minutes.  If they are looking for neurally mediated syncope, then you might need the whole time.  If they get impatient sometimes they give you nitroglycerine, which dilates blood vessels.  Not everyone does that, though, as it can give false positives.