[Relationship between orthostatic dizziness and/or giddiness, and hypotension in young normal females--a survey of 301 subjects].
Orthostatic dysregulation (OD) generally implies a systemic condition indicating poor circulatory function resulting from autonomic imbalance. It frequently appears in younger individuals at or around puberty, and is predominant in females. It is also known that individuals with this condition experience orthostatic dizziness and/or giddiness, fainting on standing and other various non-specific, subjective symptoms. Three hundred and one young normal females ranging in age from 18 to 21 years were examined using the Schellong test and the OD questionnaire to investigate the relationship between orthostatic dizziness and hypotension. Orthostatic dizziness and/or giddiness was the most frequent symptom, noted in 171 of 301 young subjects (56.8%), regardless of whether or not the subjects were actually diagnosed as having OD based on the questionnaire. Both low systolic blood pressure (90 mmHg or loss) in the supine position and systolic pressure decrease (11 mmHg or more) in the standing position during the procedure for the Schellong test were significantly related to the occurrence of orthostatic dizziness and/or giddiness. It may be reasonable to conclude from the present study that orthostatic dizziness is even more commonly observed in young normal female subjects than expected and correlates more closely with both hypotension and systolic pressure decrease in the standing position than previously thought. Thus, in our opinion, this testing procedure introduced by Schellong can be useful, and is clinically applicable to the assessment of orthostatic dizziness and/or giddiness and OD, since this test has the advantage of being simple enough to carry out in clinical practice.
Nozawa
I
I
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Yamanashi Medical University.
Nakayama
H
H
Hashimoto
K
K
Horiguchi
S
S
Imamura
S
S
Hisamatsu
K
K
Murakami
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D004244:Dizziness / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007024:Hypotension, Orthostatic / Q000150:complications*