Short-duration head-up tilt test potentiated with sublingual nitroglycerin in suspected vasovagal syncope: the fast Italian protocol.

Background: The traditional nitroglycerin (NTG) head-up tilt test (HUTT) is time-consuming and the test duration is a barrier to widespread utilization in clinical practice. It was hypothesized that a short-duration protocol is not inferior to the traditional protocol regarding the positivity rate and has a similar distribution of hemodynamic response.

Methods And Results: Patients undergoing HUTT were randomized 1:1 to a 10 min passive phase plus a 10 min 0.

Excess epicardial fat volume in women is a novel risk marker for microvascular dysfunction, which may be a contributing factor in the atypical chest pain syndrome.

Background: Excess epicardial fat volume (EFV) has been recently implicated in cardiovascular structural and functional abnormalities. It has been associated with abnormal microvascular stiffness (as reflected by radial artery waveform; C2), which may result in microvascular dysfunction and contribute to the atypical chest pain syndrome without obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Women have been statistically shown to present with atypical chest pain more often than men and specifically without obstructive CAD.