Emergency Department utilisation and diagnoses in adolescents with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Introduction: Data for Emergency Department utilisation and diagnoses in adolescents with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome are lacking, making prevention of these visits more difficult to achieve. Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome between ages 12 and 18 years seen in the Emergency Department at a large tertiary care children's hospital. These subjects were age- and sex-matched with controls, with volume of primary and total diagnoses assessed. Due to the relatively small number of subjects, a +/- 3-year variance was used among control patients for age matching. Results: A total of 297 patients in each group were evaluated. The percentage of female patients was 80.5%. The median age of the subjects was 15.1 years (interquartile range 14.1-15.9), and the median age of controls was 16.1 years (interquartile range 14.4- 17.4) (p < 0.00001). Patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome had greater gastroenterologic and headache diagnoses (p < 0.00001); controls had greater autonomic and psychiatric diagnoses. Discussion: Adolescent patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome who present to the Emergency Department have a preponderance of gastroenterologic and headache complaints versus controls.