Development and Validation of the Kansas City Cardiac Dysautonomia Questionnaire (KCDysQ)

With the advent of other disease specific questionnaires in patients with cardiac disease such as the AFEQT questionnaire, patients with cardiac dysautonomia have a unique symptom set that can range from mild symptoms to debilitating on a daily scale. Given that they are an underdiagnosed population who often have considerable rates of misdiagnosis, diagnostic delay, and concurrent life limiting factors not addressed by previous QOL assessments, the next logical step therefore is the development and further validation of a QOL questionnaire that serves to respect and represent the 6 domains of QOL as stated by the WHO, with representation of all four health related QOL (HRQoL), as well as focus on underrepresented areas of patients with cardiac dysautonomia.

A novel disease specific KCDysQ questionnaire with questions being gathered from an extensive literature review of QOL measures in this subset of patients as well as interviews and personal interactions with these patients is proposed. It will begin with a 100-item questionnaire and proceed to use a power analysis to further stratify this. For validation of this questionnaire, it is proposed to prospectively recruit all patients with a diagnosis of POTS, IST, or VVS in a single center, and stratify them into patients with a new diagnosis/untreated POTS, IST, or VVS compared with patients who have had symptoms improvement with medication or stable disease who present for routine follow ups. Though an emerging technique and therefore a small but important percentage of this population, patients who have underwent sinus node manipulation for treatment of their IST or POTS as well will also be included, as these subsets of patients have undergone little prior evaluation.

Inclusion criteria

Patients with a Diagnosis of POTS, IST, or vasovagal syncope

Exclusion criteria

Patients with comorbid chronic conditions causing significant impairments in quality of life, defined as:

• NYHA Class III or IV Heart Failure
• COPD GOLD 3 or 4, Group C or D
• Any patients with current malignancy not in remission
• Any patient with history of Autoimmune disease requiring chronic steroid therapy or immunomodulatory agents: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Sarcoidosis, Psoriasis All patients with ESRD requiring hemodialysis All patients with cirrhosis of any origin Any patients with solid organ or bone marrow transplant requiring immunosuppressive therapy