Discovering the cause of syncope. A guide to the focused evaluation.
Syncope has many causes. Although the most common ones are generally benign and do not require extensive evaluation, cardiac syncope has high rates of recurrence and death. In this article, Dr Hauer describes how physical examination and electrocardiographic findings can guide further evaluation to provide the largest diagnostic yield at the lowest cost.
Hauer
Karen E
KE
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, 400 Parnassus Ave, Box 0320, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. karenha@itsa.ucsf.edu
D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D003663:Decision Trees; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D013575:Syncope / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality