Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome: a dermatologic perspective and successful treatment with losartan

Abstract

The postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is a disease characterized by excessively increased heart rate during orthostatic challenge associated with symptoms of orthostatic intolerance including dizziness, exercise intolerance, headache, fatigue, memory problems, nausea, blurred vision, pallor, and sweating, which improve with recumbence. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome patients may present with a multitude of additional symptoms that are attributable to vascular vasoconstriction. Observed signs and symptoms in a patient with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome include tachycardia at rest, exaggerated heart rate increase with upright position and exercise, crushing chest pain, tremor, syncope, loss of vision, confusion, migraines, fatigue, heat intolerance, parasthesia, dysesthesia, allodynia, altered traditional senses, and thermoregulatory abnormalities. There are a number of possible dermatological manifestations of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome easily explained by its recently discovered pathophysiology. The author reports the case of a 22-year-old woman with moderate-to-severe postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome with numerous dermatological manifestations attributable to the disease process. The cutaneous manifestations observed in this patient are diverse and most noticeable during postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome flares. The most distinct are evanescent, hyperemic, sharply demarcated, irregular patches on the chest and neck area that resolve upon diascopy. This distinct "evanescent hyperemia" disappears spontaneously after seconds to minutes and reappears unexpectedly. Other observed dermatological manifestations of this systemic disease include Raynaud's phenomenon, koilonychia, onychodystrophy, madarosis, dysesthesia, allodynia, telogen effluvium, increased capillary refill time, and livedo reticularis. The treatment of this disease poses a great challenge. The author reports the unprecedented use of an oral angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist resulting in remarkable improvement.

Figure 1

Evanescent hyperemia manifesting on the neck of a POTS patient.

Figure 2

Evanescent hyperemia manifesting on the chest of a POTS patient.