Atrial electromechanical conduction delay in patients with neurocardiogenic syncope.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate the presence of atrial electromechanical conduction delay in patients with neurocardiogenic syncope, which was diagnosed with head-up tilt table test (HUTT).


METHODS
A total of 29 patients (mean age: 30.6 ± 15.9 years) with vasovagal syncope, as diagnosed by HUTT, and 23 healthy control subjects (mean age: 34.7 ± 16.3 years) with a negative HUTT were enrolled to the study. Atrial electromechanical conduction delay was defined as the time elapsed from the beginning of the P wave in the electrogardiogram to the beginning of the Am wave in tissue Doppler.


RESULTS
There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of interatrial conduction delay, whereas the difference was significant with regard to the right intraatrial electromechanical conduction delay (P < 0.01) and the left intraatrial electromechanical conduction delay (P < 0.0001). There was a negative correlation between the left intraatrial electromechanical conduction delay and the right intraatrial electromechanical conduction delay (r = -0.486, P = 0.001), whereas a positive correlation was present with the interatrial electromechanical conduction delay (r = 0.507, P = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the tissue Doppler method revealed that there is left and right intraatrial electromechanical conduction delay in patients with vasovagal syncope. The impact and role of atrial conduction delay as a pathophysiological determinant should be confirmed in further studies.
Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
Murat
M
Sucu
Suleyman
S
Ercan
Okkes
O
Uku
Vedat
V
Davutoglu
Gokhan
G
Altunbas
D000328:Adult; D054537:Atrioventricular Block / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D004562:Electrocardiography; D056966:Excitation Contraction Coupling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019462:Syncope, Vasovagal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018667:Tilt-Table Test
atrial electromechanical conduction delay; neurocardiogenic syncope; tissue Doppler