UCalgary research dispels long-held myth about POTS

At 12 years old, Kate Bourne was struggling with crushing fatigue, abdominal pain and unexplained symptoms that made everyday life increasingly difficult. 

More than a decade would pass before she learned she had Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS — an autonomic disorder that affects up to 450,000 Canadians, the vast majority of them females of childbearing age. 

Although known for causing rapid heartbeat when standing, POTS can cause a myriad of life-altering symptoms, such as light-headedness, nausea, fatigue and brain fog. But a myth has arisen that its symptoms spontaneously go away.

But a recent study co-authored by Bourne, an MD/PhD candidate at the University of Calgary, found that, while nearly half of patients studied reported some improvement over time, almost all (98 per cent) continued to experience symptoms many years after diagnosis.

Bourne, who is currently completing her training as part of the Cumming School of Medicine’s Leaders in Medicine program, has lived with the condition for two decades. As it does for many, it greatly altered her life. 

“My teenage and young adult years were atypical, and it was challenging,” says Bourne, whose symptoms became so severe that she had to extend both her high school and undergraduate studies. Compounding the difficulties, Bourne did not receive a diagnosis until she was 24 years old.

Her personal experience with the condition motivated Bourne to study POTS under the mentorship of world-leading experts, Dr. Satish R. Raj, MD, and Dr. Robert S. Sheldon, MD, PhD. 

“This understanding of what patients endure has shaped my career path,” says Bourne. “My goal is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of POTS, so women and girls don’t have to suffer like I did.” 

Bourne doesn’t take her goal lightly. For the past five years, she has been the first author on multiple POTS studies as part of the Raj lab’s research team, examining everything from quality-of-life impacts to non-drug therapies such as compression garments. 

Most recently, Bourne was first author of a study examining symptoms in adult POTS patients. The research was designed to answer a common question from patients: What happens to their POTS over time?

Published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the study was conducted in partnership with Vanderbilt University in the U.S. with co-author Bonnie Black of the Vanderbilt Autonomic Dysfunction Center. It followed 44 patients whose symptoms, for them, first appeared a median of 23 years earlier, making it the largest POTS follow-up to date. 

“Some clinicians think POTS spontaneously disappears, so it isn’t a big deal,” says Bourne. “This study provides the evidence to dispel that rumour.”