Translating doctor-speak

  Sorry the spacing of this is a bit off, the formatting was difficult to do. Hope it helps!

Term	Definition
Syncope	fainting
Hypotension	low blood pressure
Orthostatic	standing up or upright
Orthostatic Intolerance (OI)	the inability to tolerate the upright stance
Arrhythmia, arrhythmic	abnormal heart rhythm, irregular, too fast (tachycardia), too slow (bradycardia)
Ischemia, ischemic	too little blood
Long QT syndrome	an electrical heart abnormality that can produce dangerous arrhythmias
Cardiomyopathy	disease of the heart muscle
Myocardial infarction	heart attack
Cardiogenic	caused by the heart
Neurovascular, Neurally mediated, neurocardiogenic	caused by an interaction between the nervous system and the circulatory system
Vaso, Vascular, vasomotor	pertaining to blood vessels and their contraction
Vagus, vagal	a cranial nerve which when stimulated causes heart slowing (among other actions)
Autonomic nervous system	the part of the nervous system regulating many involuntary actions such as the heart rate and blood pressure
Venous	pertaining to veins
Right atrium	the part of the heart which receives blood returning from the body
Pooling	the collection of blood or body fluids in dependent portions of the body
Arterial resistance (vasoconstriction)	contraction of small arteries provides resistance against which our heart pumps blood. Different vessel resistances account for redistribution of blood throughout our body
Peripheral resistance	usually refers to arterial resistance in more peripheral parts of the body: e.g. limbs, skin
Vasodilation	arterial widening
Splanchnic vascular bed	liver, spleen and digestive tract: major venous reservoir
ARTERIAL BARORECEPTORS	pressure receptors intimately involved with the response to orthostasis
Cardiopulmonary reflexes	reflexes from the heart and lungs which affect vascular function; these are less involved with the normal response to orthostasis
renin-angiotensin-aldosterone, epinephrine, vasopressin	hormones involved with blood pressure regulation
cerebrovascular autoregulation	the ability of the brain to maintain its blood flow
Tilt Table test, head-up tilt, HUT	typically a motorized table with foot support which can take a patient from supine to upright or any angle in between. HUT is the de facto orthostatic stress test.
Hemodynamic	pertaining to the flow of blood
Asystole	heart stopping
Ventricle	pumping chamber of the heart
Contractile, contractility	pertaining to the intrinsic ability of the heart to contract
Hypovolemia	low blood volume
Dysautonomia, dysautonomic	malfunction of the autonomic nervous system
Familial dysautonomia	an inherited form of autonomic failure seen only in Ashkenazi Jews
Valsalva maneuver	a simple test of overall autonomic function
POTS	postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
Sympathetic, sympathetic nervous system	the part of the nervous system which when activated increases heart rate and blood pressure and causes vasoconstriction among other actions.
Parasympathetic, parasympathetic nervous system	in some sense the obverse of the sympathetic system, it slows the heart rate and may have effects on blood pressure among other non-circulatory actions. The vagus nerve and the glossopharyngeal nerve are importantly involved with these actions.