Excellent Article on POTS and IST

I came across this article today.  I was googling for info to explain IST vs. POTS -BECAUSE.... my cardio told me they are both the same.  When I saw him yesterday and he changed the beta blocker dosing again, I asked specifically what is the difference (he originally told me I have IST).  He looked me in the eyes and said they are the same.  Read this article.  They are not the same.  This is the most informative article I have read yet.  It even describes sub-categories.  

[Heiferly]

We have articles by Dr. Grubb on our "further reading" Health Page.  I am SO SORRY if somehow you've slipped through the cracks and no one has pointed out the health pages to you all this time since you joined our dysautonomia community!!!!  There is a link to our health pages on the upper right hand corner whenever you are here in the Dysautonomia Community (it's next to the yellow icon that has pieces of paper on it and it just says "Health Pages").  We share our health pages section with the other neurology communities, so if you see other neuro topics mixed in with dysautonomia topics, that's why.  Although, it's nice in a way because we can benefit from chiari being mixed in, for example, as that affects some of our community members as well!

For your convenience, I'll put a direct link to our health pages directory here for you:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/list?cid=196


And here is the "further reading" page with more by Dr. Blair Grubb ... you're right, he's one of the top experts in our field and is also generally easy to read (though one of his textbooks on syncope is more of a medical tome and is a bit more advanced reading).

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Neurological-Disorders/Further-Reading-on-Dysautonomia/show/696?cid=196


If you read the page on the diagnostic criteria for POTS, there are *many* excellent experts and texts referenced there as well, though admittedly (having read most of these myself), they're not for the faint of heart when it comes to medical jargon and it's likely best to start with articles first and work up to heavier reading when one gets more familiar with the jargon of the field:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Neurological-Disorders/Dysautonomia--POTS-Diagnostic-Criteria/show/1011?cid=196


Finally, here is an article on the differential diagnosis of sinus tachycardia which should illustrate the difference between POTS and IST.  (I only have the direct link to the .pdf, so I apologize but the pdf file will immediately begin download when you click the link.  You need Adobe Acrobat reader to open the file, but almost everyone has this already on their computer whether they are running Windows or Mac OS, so this shouldn't be an issue--the reader is free at any rate.)

http://www.iranep.org/Articles/Sinus%20tach%20GP%20Clin%20Cardiol%202005.pdf


I have journal articles growing out my ears, so if you need help finding more info, I can probably provide you with more or show you how to find it yourself.  Again, sorry if no one had previously pointed out the health pages!!

Take care,
-heiferly.

[ParrotPal]

http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/117/21/2814

[Heiferly]

We have articles by Dr. Grubb on our "further reading" Health Page.  I am SO SORRY if somehow you've slipped through the cracks and no one has pointed out the health pages to you all this time since you joined our dysautonomia community!!!!  There is a link to our health pages on the upper right hand corner whenever you are here in the Dysautonomia Community (it's next to the yellow icon that has pieces of paper on it and it just says "Health Pages").  We share our health pages section with the other neurology communities, so if you see other neuro topics mixed in with dysautonomia topics, that's why.  Although, it's nice in a way because we can benefit from chiari being mixed in, for example, as that affects some of our community members as well!

For your convenience, I'll put a direct link to our health pages directory here for you:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/list?cid=196


And here is the "further reading" page with more by Dr. Blair Grubb ... you're right, he's one of the top experts in our field and is also generally easy to read (though one of his textbooks on syncope is more of a medical tome and is a bit more advanced reading).

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Neurological-Disorders/Further-Reading-on-Dysautonomia/show/696?cid=196


If you read the page on the diagnostic criteria for POTS, there are *many* excellent experts and texts referenced there as well, though admittedly (having read most of these myself), they're not for the faint of heart when it comes to medical jargon and it's likely best to start with articles first and work up to heavier reading when one gets more familiar with the jargon of the field:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Neurological-Disorders/Dysautonomia--POTS-Diagnostic-Criteria/show/1011?cid=196


Finally, here is an article on the differential diagnosis of sinus tachycardia which should illustrate the difference between POTS and IST.  (I only have the direct link to the .pdf, so I apologize but the pdf file will immediately begin download when you click the link.  You need Adobe Acrobat reader to open the file, but almost everyone has this already on their computer whether they are running Windows or Mac OS, so this shouldn't be an issue--the reader is free at any rate.)

http://www.iranep.org/Articles/Sinus%20tach%20GP%20Clin%20Cardiol%202005.pdf


I have journal articles growing out my ears, so if you need help finding more info, I can probably provide you with more or show you how to find it yourself.  Again, sorry if no one had previously pointed out the health pages!!

Take care,
-heiferly.

[ParrotPal]

Thanks.  There is so much info on this site that it is mind boggling.  Should we remove my post?

[Heiferly]

No, I think your post is great because there may be others floating around who have slipped through the cracks and weren't aware of the resources available through our health pages.

I probably should have given you my standard "pardon our dust" disclaimer too, haha.  We're in a constant state of being WAY behind on updating and finishing our work on the health pages, so you may note that several of them are incomplete or could use updating (such as the sections on the treatment page that still have "?" on them in lieu of information).  Sorry about that.  There's always more to do and a limited amount of time for us co-CLs to do it in ...  

[ParrotPal]

Heiferly, BTW, the list of resources and info that you directed me to in this community is wonderful.  Thanks.

[Heiferly]

If you ever need anything else specifically, just ask me.  I have scads more journal articles on my own hard drive and/or bookmarked on my browser that aren't indexed there.  I do need to update some of them to that list, but I try to restrict that list to ones that are most likely to be of general interest and least likely to be so technically complex as to be impenetrable/incomprehensible to the majority of readers without a degree in a related field.  

On the other hand, I'm always happy to try and pull out of my resources particular topics if someone has a need for certain information.  I also do my best to do research on-the-fly for MedHelp members in need of information on particular topics when I have the time/energy to do so.

For those with the motivation and desire to do so, the way to access these journal articles is to perform searches via either Pubmed or Google Scholar.  Here are the URLs for those sites in case you ever want to try your hand at looking anything up.  I'll admit there's a bit of a learning curve to it all, and I don't mind a bit if you rely on me to at least get you started in the right direction when you're looking for something in particular.  :-)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

http://scholar.google.com/