Near-infrared spectroscopy muscle oximetry of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a disabling condition characterized by orthostatic intolerance with tachycardia in the absence of drop-in blood pressure. A custom-built near-infrared spectroscopy device (NIRS) is applied to monitor the muscle oxygenation, noninvasively in patients undergoing incremental head-up tilt table (HUT). Subjects (6 POTS patients and 6 healthy controls) underwent 30 mins of 70°on a HUT. The results showed a significant difference in deoxyhemoglobin (Hb), change-in-oxygenation (ΔOxy) and blood volume (ΔBV) between patients and healthy controls. However, oxyhemoglobin (HbO(2)) showed a significantly faster rate of change in the healthy controls during the first 10 mins of the tilt and during the recovery. This NIRS muscle oximetry tool provides quantitative measurements of blood oxygenation monitoring in diseases such as POTS.