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

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. 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. 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. Adolescent patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome who present to the Emergency Department have a preponderance of gastroenterologic and headache complaints versus controls.