Sublingual isosorbide dinitrate-stimulated tilt test for diagnosis of vasovagal syncope in children and adolescents

Vasovagal syncope is the most likely cause of syncope in the young. Head-up tilt-table test (HUT) provides the ability to provoke vasovagal syncope under controlled laboratory settings. In adult populations, pharmacologic stimulation with intravenous/sublingual isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) has been shown to be an alternative to isoproterenol for increasing the diagnostic yield of HUT. In this study, 40 patients aged 9 18 years with unexplained syncope and 12 healthy age-matched children were evaluated by HUT to 70degrees for 45 minutes. If tilting alone did not induce symptoms (syncope and presyncope), 0.1 mg/kg ISDN was given while the patient lay supine. After 5 min, the table was tilted to 70degrees for 15 min or until the symptoms occurred. The control group consisted of 12 healthy age-matched children studied in a similar manner. Six patients (15%) had a positive basal tilt test. Twenty-five patients (62.5%) lost consciousness following ISDN administration. In the control group, nobody had a syncopal episode during the basal tilt test. However, ISDN administration resulted in I positive response (8.3%). The sensitivity of the test was 77.5% and its specificity was 91.6%. It is concluded that sublingual nitroglycerin HUT is suitable for routine clinical practice in children and adolescents with unexplained syncope.