Cardiovascular responses to orthostasis and their association with falls in older adults

BMC Geriatrics

Table 4 Proportion of fallers and non-fallers meeting hemodynamic criteria for orthostatic hypotension during the passive seated orthostatic stress test

Parameter	Criteria	Fallers	Non-fallers
Parameter	Criteria	n (%)
Initial OH	Systolic	2 (7.4)	4 (20.0)
Initial OH	Diastolic	3 (11.1)	3 (15.0)
Consensus OH	Systolic	10 (37.0)	6 (31.6)
Consensus OH	Diastolic	9 (33.3)	7 (36.8)
Delayed OH	Systolic	11 (40.7)	5 (26.3)
Delayed OH	Diastolic	13 (48.2)	6 (31.6)

Initial OH was defined as a decline of > 40 mmHg systolic or > 20 mmHg diastolic within the first 30 s. Consensus OH refers to a decline of > 20 mmHg systolic or > 10 mmHg diastolic within the first 3 min. Delayed criteria were defined as declines of > 20 mmHg systolic or > 10 mmHg diastolic from 3–15 min. There were no statistically significant differences between fallers and non-fallers for any of the OH definitions. However, of the 31 participants (57.4 %) of our total sample who met hemodynamic criteria for OH at any point during the test, 16 (51.5 %) showed an OH response after 3 min time, and 8 (25.8 %) of whom exclusively had a delayed blood pressure decline
Abbreviations: OH orthostatic hypotension

ISSN: 1471-2318