The tilt table test shows how your body responds when you change your position. It can help figure out why you faint or feel dizzy. Doctors often use this test when fainting happens without a clear reason.
What is a Tilt Table Test?
The tilt table test is a medical procedure that helps doctors understand why people faint. During the test, you lie on a special table that can tilt upwards.
As the table tilts, doctors monitor your blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rhythm. This information helps them identify if there’s a problem with how your body responds to changes in position, which can be a common cause of fainting.
What Does a Tilt Table Test Show?
Fainting is when you briefly lose consciousness and fall. It happens because your brain doesn’t get enough blood. A sudden drop in your blood pressure or heart rate or changes in your blood flow can cause this.
Your body should automatically adjust your heart rate and blood pressure, no matter if you’re standing, sitting, or lying down. But sometimes, medical conditions can interfere with this process. This can cause your blood pressure to drop suddenly when you stand up too quickly.
Fainting often happens because of other health problems that affect your heart, nervous system, or brain. Your doctor might also order other tests to learn more about your condition.
What You Can Expect
Before the Tilt Table Test
Before undergoing a tilt table test, you’ll be asked to lie down on a special table. This table can tilt you to different angles to check how your body reacts to changes in position. You’ll be strapped to the table to keep you safe and secure.
Small, sticky patches called electrodes will be placed on your chest and sometimes on your legs and arms. These electrodes are connected to a machine that monitors your heart rate and rhythm. A cuff will be placed on your arm or wrist to measure your blood pressure throughout the test, and a small device will be clipped onto your fingertip to check your oxygen levels.
In some cases, a small needle may be inserted into a vein in your arm. This is done in case any medications need to be given during the test.
Once everything is set up, the table will slowly tilt you to an upright position. The healthcare team will monitor you closely throughout the test to ensure your safety and to gather important information about how your body is responding to the change in position.
During the Tilt Table Test
During the tilt table test, a healthcare professional will watch you to see how your heartbeat changes when you change positions.
First, you’ll lie flat on the table for about five minutes. Your doctor will monitor your heartbeat and blood pressure. Then, the table will tilt to a position that’s like standing. Depending on why you’re taking the test, you might stay in this position for 5 to 45 minutes. Your doctor will continue to watch for any changes in your heartbeat or blood pressure.
While you’re in this position, try to stay as still as possible. Tell your doctor if you feel sweaty, lightheaded, dizzy, sick to your stomach, or if your heart is pounding or racing.
If you don’t faint or have other symptoms after 45 minutes, you might be given a medication that can cause you to faint. This medication is given through a needle in your arm.
You’ll then stay standing on the table for another 15 to 20 minutes.
Your nervous system controls your heart rate and blood pressure. When you stand up during the tilt table test, your heart rate and blood pressure might suddenly drop for a short time. This can reduce blood flow to your brain, which can cause fainting.
After the Tilt Table Test
If you faint during the test, the healthcare professional will immediately lower the table to a flat position and carefully check on you. Most people who faint during the test regain consciousness very quickly.
And once the test is over, you can go back to your normal activities.
Results
The results of a tilt table test depend on whether you faint during the test and what happens to your blood pressure and heart rate.
- Positive result: Your blood pressure drops, and your heart rate changes, which can make you feel dizzy or faint.
- Negative result: Your heart rate increases only just a little bit. Your blood pressure doesn’t drop much, and you don’t have any symptoms of fainting.
Your doctor might recommend more tests, depending on the results, to find out what else might be causing you to faint.
In Short
Fainting can be scary, and it might make you avoid being alone or going out. Doctors use the tilt table test to figure out why people faint. Because once they get to know the cause, they can create a treatment plan to help you.
At Memorial Cardiology Associates, our specialists offer the tilt table test. You can get this test done in different cities in Texas. For our Memorial City and Bellville clinic, call (713) 464-6006. For Katy West, call (281) 398-4944, and for Greater Heights, call (713) 861-2424.