Evaluation of psychological fear in children undergoing head-up tilt test
CHU Wei-Hong, WU Li-Jia, WANG Cheng, LIN Ping, LI Fang, ZHU Li-Ping, RAN Jing, ZOU Run-Mei, LIU De-Yu
Department of Pediatric Cardiovascular Diseases, Children's Medical Center, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University & Institute of Pediatrics of Central South University, Changsha 410011, China
Abstract：Objective To investigate the effects of different tilt angles of head-up tilt test (HUTT) and different responses to HUTT on the psychological fear in children undergoing the test. Methods HUTT was performed on children with unexplained syncope or pre-syncope (107 cases: 52 males and 55 females), aged 5.5-17.8 years (mean 12.0±2.8 years). All subjects were randomly assigned to undergo HUTT at an angle of 60°, 70° or 80°; the negative cases underwent sublingual nitroglycerin-provocation HUTT at the same tilt angle. The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale was used for self-assessment of psychological fear in subjects during HUTT at the end point of the test. Results The positive rate, hemodynamic changes and distribution of response types showed no significant differences between children at tilt angles of 60°, 70° and 80° (P>0.05). The greater the tilt angle, the higher the degree of psychological fear in children undergoing the test, but there were no significant differences between them (P>0.05). The degree of psychological fear in children who showed a positive response to HUTT (n=76) was significantly higher than that in children who showed a negative response (n=31) (P<0.01). Conclusions HUTT can cause psychological fear in children undergoing the test, and the degree of psychological fear increases in children tested at tilt angles from 60° to 80°, but the differences have no statistical significance. A positive response to HUTT can significantly increase the psychological fear in children.
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