2020 Volume 48 Issue 1 Pages 7-13
Types of syncope occurring during a tilt-table test (TTT) include vasodepressor-type, cardioinhibitory-type, or a mixed-type according to heart rate and blood pressure responses. Long asystole responses during cardioinhibitory-type syncope, as induced by the TTT, require careful intervention to prevent convulsive syncope. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with long asystole induced by the TTT. In total, 195 patients (106 man, 89 women, age 47.0 ± 20.4 years) underwent a TTT from October 2013 to March 2017. A long asystole response was defined as no detectable heartbeat for more than 3 seconds. Seventeen patients (nine men, eight women, age 37.5 ± 16.1 years) exhibited cardioinhibitory-type reflex syncope with long asystole. The average asystole time was 10.0 ± 6.0 s, and the maximum was 25.4 s. Three patients with long asystole appeared to experience convulsions but did not require additional treatments, including any drugs. The patients with periods of long asystole were significantly younger than those without periods of long asystole.
