Hello everyone. I want to tell you about my experience as it seems particular even if in reality it could have meaning for a lot of people with POTS or IIH (idiopathic intracranial hypertension).
I suffer from IIH, due to a cerebral venous malformation. specifically I was born without the right transverse venous sinus (which is the breast that drains the most blood and CSF).
As a child I have always suffered from migraines, without ever having had the need to consult a specialist. about two years ago I started having symptoms attributable to central nervous system problems (dizziness, poor mental clarity, tremors, awkward movement and feeling of fainting), then I consulted a specialist, I underwent a brain and vein MRI of the brain, being diagnosed with IIH (pseudotumor cerebri). I have not had a lumbar puncture for blood pressure because I have all the signs and symptoms of IIH.
I am normally bradycardic if I am at rest. last year I began to notice that my heart rate is often high when standing, and I notice that the symptoms I mentioned earlier when they are more prominent are associated with a higher heart rate in standing position.
I therefore consult the cardiologists who first implant me a holter ecg and then a loop recorder under the skin which confirms the presence of orthostatic tachycardia (generally on average it is 115). I understood that it was a form of dysautonomia but I didn't think about POTS. I then consult my neurologist who tells me that my POTS is caused by my IIH explaining to me: "IIH involves a lower perfusion of oxygen in the brain which is aggravated with standing upright and therefore with gravity, leading to the aforementioned symptoms (dizziness etc. etc) so the heart to compensate and not make you faint has no other option than to increase the heart rate.Now I'm increasing the Diamox, which I tolerate very little, and it seems that the tachycardias are reducing.
