The 12-lead ECG in the figure was obtained from a middle-aged woman with syncope and hypotension but no chest pain. No long lead rhythm strip is available. What might be causing her syncope?
These investigators found that adding witness-reported observations to patient demographics and patient-reported symptoms improved the diagnostic accuracy between epilepsy, syncope, and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.
Relying on the most current literature, this article discusses the causes of syncope and syncope mimics, provides the best practice evaluation strategies, and will refamiliarize emergency physicians with current state-of-the-art practices regarding syncope risk stratification guidelines.
Children may present to the emergency department with a potential syncopal event. Although the presentation is unusual, everyone fears missing a cardiac issue. The authors present a concise review, focusing on the history, physical exam, and ECG, of how to evaluate and manage a child with syncope, differentiating other mimics and discussing the current therapeutic approach to the most common diagnosis.
A recent review of clinical features of patients with syncope found that pulmonary embolism may be one of the most common causes, and thus should be considered by all physicians who are evaluating such patients.
This issue of Emergency Medicine Reports covers the current landscape of syncope from the ED perspective and continues to stress the importance of physician judgment.
The authors of this study in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated participants enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study between 1971 and 1998 who reported syncopal events.
