Heart 2008;94:1528-1529
EDITORIALS
Is it cardiac? Assessment of syncope with a scoring system
Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Dr R A Kenny, Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; rkenny@tcd.ie
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In this issue of Heart, Del Rosso et al report the results of a prospective validation study of a clinical assessment tool for adults attending the emergency department with a history of transient loss of consciousness (see page 1620).1 The scoring system, which "cannot be used as a substitute for clinical judgment of the experts" is geared towards identifying those patients who have a cardiac cause and is intended to serve as an aid for junior doctors providing front-line care in busy emergency departments. The proposed screening tool has a high sensitivity and relatively high specificity.
THE RELEVANCE OF SYNCOPE
Syncope has an enormous medical, social and economic impact on the general population. In the Framingham Heart Study, the incidence of a first report of syncope was 6.2 per 1000 person-years,2 and it is estimated that about 35% of people faint at least once in their life.3 Syncope evaluation accounts for
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Clinical predictors of cardiac syncope at initial evaluation in patients referred urgently to a general hospital: the EGSYS score
- A Del Rosso, A Ungar, R Maggi, F Giada, N R Petix, T De Santo, C Menozzi, and M Brignole
Heart 2008 94: 1620-1626.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
hrt.2008.148361v1
94/12/1528 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
