The management of arrhythmic sincope.
Arrhythmic syncope explains 5% to 20% of the causes of syncope and its incidence increases with age. In patients with arrhythmic syncope, a poor prognosis can be expected if syncope is misdiagnosed, particularly when arrhythmias occur in a patient with advanced heart disease. Arrhythmic causes are due either to bradycardia (diagnosed by surface electrocardiography, 24-hour Holter monitoring and electrophysiologic study in patients with bundle-branch block) or to supraventricular or ventricular tachycardia (diagnosed by electrophysiologic study and/or long-term event recording). Arrhythmic syncope can be easily prevented with antiarrhythmic drugs or, more frequently, with non-medical treatments such as radiofrequency ablation of tachycardia, and pacemaker or defibrillator implantation.
Brembilla-Perrot
B
B
Department of Cardiology, CHU of Brabois, Vandoeuvre Les Nancy, France. b.brembilla-perrot@chu-nancy.fr
D001919:Bradycardia / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D013575:Syncope / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy