Syncope is a common disorder with a lifetime prevalence of about 40%. Implantable cardiac electronic devices, including implantable loop recorders (ILR) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD), are well established in syncope management. However, despite the successful use of ILR and ICD, diagnosis and therapy still remain challenging in many patients due to the complex hemodynamic in...

BACKGROUND The cause of syncope remains unknown in 24% to 37% of cases even after standard diagnostic tests. Measuring blood volume may elucidate the mechanisms of syncope in the individual patient and prove helpful in determining optimal therapy. This report includes the largest set of blood volume measurements performed in syncope patients to date. METHODS We performed radioisotopic blood v...

A case of sick sinus syndrome aggravated by carbamazepine prescribed for epilepsy is described. A 70 year old woman with previously stable psychomotor epilepsy experienced syncope of increased frequency after her anticonvulsant was changed to carbamazepine. ECG monitoring confirmed a severe sick sinus syndrome which improved on carbamazepine withdrawal. Failure to distinguish carbamazepine-indu...

Sympathetic activation during orthostatic stress is accompanied by a marked increase in low-frequency (LF, approximately 0.1-Hz) oscillation of sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) when arterial pressure (AP) is well maintained. However, LF oscillation of SNA during development of orthostatic neurally mediated syncope remains unknown. Ten healthy subjects who developed head-up tilt (HUT)-induced sy...

Syncope can be defined as a temporary loss of consciousness and postural tone secondary to a lack of adequate cerebral blood perfusion. The incidence of syncope coming to medical attention appears to be clearly increased in two age groups—that is, in the young and in the old (fig 1). An incidence peak occurs around the age of 15 years, with females having more than twice the incidence of males....

About 10-15% of patients with multiple myeloma develop light chain (AL) amyloidosis. AL amyloidosis is a systemic disease that may involve multiple organs, often including the heart. It may present clinically with bradyarrhythmia and syncope. The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib has been used with clinical efficacy in treating patients with AL amyloidosis but also implicated as a possible cause ...

Syncope in childhood is very common. The vast majority of episodes are benign, and are due to neurocardiogenic syncope. Only a minority are due to something potentially more serious or life threatening. The diagnosis and differentiation of benign from more serious causes of syncope is made primarily by the history. Investigations are often unfruitful. The mainstay of management in neurocardioge...

There are three major types of syncope: neurally mediated (the most common), orthostatic hypotensive, and cardiac (the most worrisome). Several studies have shown a normal long-term survival rate in patients with syncope who have no structural heart disease, which is the most important predictor of death and ventricular arrhythmia. The workup of unexplained syncope depends on the presence or ab...

Cardiac sinus syncope is a recognised but rare complication of head and neck cancers. Although electrical pacing remains an important treatment to prevent further syncopal episodes related to bradycardia, vasopressor-related syncope remains a more difficult management problem. The article describes the case of a 66-year-old patient with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the nose, who presen...

BACKGROUND with increasing age, causes of syncope are more often of cardiac origin. Syncope in older persons is often mistaken for falls. Data regarding the association between specific cardiovascular conditions, falls and syncope are limited. METHODS cross-sectional analyses within a population sample aged 50+ (n = 8,173). Syncope and falls in the past year, cardiovascular conditions and co-...