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. 2020 Mar 3;36(3):549-552.
doi: 10.1002/joa3.12325. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Brain fog in postural tachycardia syndrome: An objective cerebral blood flow and neurocognitive analysis

Rachel Wells  1   2   3 , Felix Paterson  4 , Stephen Bacchi  1 , Amanda Page  3   5 , Mathias Baumert  2   6 , Dennis H Lau  2   7
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Brain fog in postural tachycardia syndrome: An objective cerebral blood flow and neurocognitive analysis

Rachel Wells et al. J Arrhythm. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: It remains unclear whether brain fog is related to impaired cerebral blood flow (CBF) in postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) patients.

Methods: We assessed CBF in the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) using transcranial Doppler with visual stimuli in 11 POTS and 8 healthy subjects in the seated position, followed by neurocognitive testing.

Results: CBF parameters were similar between the two groups. POTS patients demonstrated significantly longer latency in delayed match to sample response time and greater errors in attention switching task.

Conclusions: Impaired short-term memory and alertness may underlie the symptom of brain fog in POTS patients, despite normal CBF.

Keywords: cerebral blood flow velocity; cognitive dysfunction; neurovascular coupling; postural tachycardia syndrome; transcranial Doppler.

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Conflict of interest statement

The University of Adelaide reports having received on behalf of Dr Lau lecture and/or consulting fees from Abbott Medical, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Biotronik, BMS Pfizer, and Medtronic.

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References

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