[Response and mechanism of vasovagal syncope induced by tilt table test]

Tilt table test (TTT) is done in 110 cases of unexplained syncope and 37 healthy controls. As a result, there is no significant difference in basal diastolic blood pressure (DBP), basal heart rate (HR) x DBP among TTT positive, TTT negative and healthy controls; but DBP and HR x DBP of TTT positive patients at the instant of syncope is not significantly different from their basal values, the HR at the instant of syncopy statistically in not different from the basal HR. These data suggest that not the same mechanism is responsible for the changes of BP and HR. In seventy percent of the TTT positive patients vasovagal syncope (VS) may be provoked by isoproterenol. So the occurrence of VS may be related to hypersensitivity of beta-receptor. TTT may be an approach to unravel the pathogenesis of VS.