Has anyone done a 24 hour holter monitor test with blood pressure? Will this detect Orthostatic Intollerance(OI)? For some reason I thought it was detected through tilt table testing.
I went to the walk-in (which I absolutely hate doing) after 10 days of pretty severe dizzy spells on standing or with activity.
The Dr. saw a fluid build up in my ear which explains the dizziness on moving.
My blood pressure sitting was fine, however, he thought I could be having spells of blood pressure decrease on standing.
I'm just wondering if anyone has had this test done and for what reasons?
The reason I ask is that if this test won't detect OI, then I don't want to bother with it.
I don't know, Gail...wonder if Sue would be able to tell you. She has had a lot of experience with this!
ReplyDeleteI had the holter monitoring and as far as I can recall it had to do with heart rate and not blood pressure. It was for electrical monitoring of my heart.
ReplyDeleteI have OI, so you need to find perhaps a rheumy or neurologist who will do one of two things:
1. Tilt table testing (best bet)
or
2. Take your blood pressure whilst laying down and then take it after standing and then wait 3-5 minutes after you've been standing and take it again. It's usually after the 3-5 min period that you really see the issue. BP drops profoundly and heart rate jumps high.
My BP sitting was usually low anyway say 100/80 and then upon standing it dropped to 80/60. After standing for 3-5 minutes my heart rate skyrocketed as my pressure dropped even more so. The tilt table test would be your best bet. Check this link out, as it explains the different OI issues. http://www.cfids.org/about-cfids/orthostatic-intolerance.asp
Also, remember that this is a kind of autonomic dysfunction and given that fact, there are many other issues that fall under autonomic dysfunction that you may realize you have if you talk to a specialist who deals with autonomic dysfunctions. Ask your doctor who to see for this. I''m pretty sure the holter monitor is not what you need if you're looking for blood pressure issues and believe me, OI, POTS and NMH can all make you very, very dizzy, breathless, heavy feeling, as well as profoundly fatigued and unable to stand for long periods of times. Grocery shopping is difficult with this condition bc your blood pools into your legs and cannot be pumped back to your brain properly. A tell tale sign is that you will suddenly just know that if you don't lie down immediately you're gonna drop. Laying flat normalizes the pressure properly and so the heavy fatigue, dizziness gets better as long as you stay flat a rest for a bit. I used to have to go to my car and lie down in the middle of grocery shopping when I was at my worst.
Good luck. If you have any question lemme know, bc i can look up in my records some other facts of my OI issues. They treat it usually with Florinef and Salt Tabs to increase blood volume and such. The woman who treated me for it had a brother at John's Hopkins who discovered this issue with cfids patients and created the treatment for it.
Hope this helps.
best,
jenji
I wrote a long response. I don't know why Blogger isn't posting some of my comments. But I'll try to write it again tomorrow if it doesn't show up. Long story short, holter monitor is for electrical testing of the heart, nothing to do with BP. OI has to do with BP. I'll have the rest of the details tomorrow if they don't show up. Sometimes I think this kind of correspondence would be easier by phone.
ReplyDeletejenji
Ok, great. I got it. I'll email you.'
ReplyDeletejenji