Isoproterenol infusion provokes vasovagal response without upright tilt in a patient exhibiting syncopal episodes

We report a case of a patient with vasovagal syncope, in whom isoproterenol infusion provoked vasovagal response without upright tilting. We subjected the patient, who had had two previous syncopal and several presyncopal episodes, to upright tilting with isoproterenol infusion. Before a control tilt was performed for 10 min (80 degrees), the patient was placed in the supine position for 5 min. The control tilt did not provoke a vasovagal response. With isoproterenol being infused at a dose of 1 mu g/min, the sequence of positioning in the supine position for 5 min and upright tilting for 10 min was repeated. This dose of isoproterenol infusion did not provoke any vasovagal response in the patient, either in the supine or in the upright position. When the dose of isoproterenol infusion was then increased to 2 mu g/min, the heart rate increased to 121/min, but then suddenly dropped to 74/min; systemic arterial pressure simultaneously fell from 148/80 to 108/80 mmHg. The patient complained of palpitation and anxiety, and showed profound cold sweating. The drop in the heart rate and the fall in blood pressure occurred when the patient was in the supine position, indicating that, unlike upright tilting with isoproterenol infusion, venous return was not decreased at the beginning of vasovagal response in this setting. This observation suggests that isoproterenol infusion, even without upright tilting, may provoke the vasovagal response in some patients.