Periaqueductal Gray-vagus Nerve Interface Malfunction Explain the Natural History With Its Numerous Co-morbidities?

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome

Treatments

Behavioral: Looming task

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT05618054

HM20025242

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is being conducted to see how people with Postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) make sense of the things they see. The information may help doctors to learn more about how the different parts of people's brains communicate.

Enrollment

36 estimated patients

Sex

Female

Ages

12 to 21 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Females 12-21 years old
Able to communicate and provide consent/assent
English speaking
Diagnosed with POTS (POTS will be defined standardly as a symptomatic ≥ 40 bpm rise in heart rate without a drop in blood pressure and with symptoms of orthostatic intolerance clinically)
Age-matched healthy control subjects: no POTS or other neurological disorders

Exclusion criteria

Inflammatory arthritis, connective tissue or auto-immune disorder
Any chronic neurological disorder besides POTS
Evidence of unstable medical disorder, such as kidney (rising creatinine, or end-stage renal failure) or liver impairment (rising AST or ALT, or end-stage with coagulopathy), poorly controlled significant cardiovascular (CHF), respiratory, endocrine (diabetes - A1c > 9 - or untreated thyroid dysfunction) or uncontrolled psychiatric illness (such as untreated depression, psychosis, etc.)
Neuropathy, central nervous system disorder (e.g., Cerebral palsy, developmental delay, seizure disorder, MS, stroke, etc.)
Treatment with a drug or medical device within the previous 30 days that has not received regulatory approval
Use of hormones (except insulin, thyroid replacement or oral contraceptives, which will be carefully documented)
Current substance or alcohol abuse
Any major surgical intervention with general anesthesia in the last 60 days and minor procedure, such as tooth extraction, endoscopy, etc., with local or conscious sedation within 7 days
Any on-going or pending medical, health or disability related litigation, or current pursuit of disability
Any condition that in the judgment of the investigator would interfere with the patient's ability to provide informed consent, comply with study instructions, place the patient at increased risk, or which would clearly confound the interpretation of the study results (specific reason will be documented)
Chronic use of narcotics for pain
Claustrophobia or any metal hardware that may interfere with MRI
Investigators and study staff