Sympathetic Cardioneuropathy in Dysautonomias

Dysautonomias, derangements of sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system function, are seen fairly often in neurology and cardiology. Autonomic hypofunction or failure has received the most attention, 1 and its causes include drugs and disease-associated polyneuropathy (e.g., diabetes and amyloidosis). Less commonly, autonomic failure occurs without an identifiable cause or in association with a disease in which the pathophysiologic basis for dysautonomia remains obscure. A consensus statement by the American Autonomic Society and the American Academy of Neurology 2 distinguished three forms of primary dysautonomia: pure autonomic failure, defined as a sporadic, idiopathic cause of persistent orthostatic hypotension and other manifestations of autonomic . . .