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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Jan;57(1):18-23.
doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.02070.x. Epub 2008 Nov 20.

Role of early symptoms in assessment of syncope in elderly people: results from the Italian group for the study of syncope in the elderly

Galizia Galizia  1 , Pasquale Abete, Chiara Mussi, Gabriele Noro, Alessandro Morrione, Assunta Langellotto, Annalisa Landi, Francesco Cacciatore, Giulio Masotti, Franco Rengo, Niccolò Marchionni, Andrea Ungar
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Role of early symptoms in assessment of syncope in elderly people: results from the Italian group for the study of syncope in the elderly

Galizia Galizia et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the ability of specific early symptoms to predict cardiac and noncardiac syncope in elderly people.

Design: Multicenter cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: Inpatient geriatric acute care departments and outpatient clinics.

Participants: Two hundred forty-two patients with syncope (mean age 79+/-8) consecutively referred for evaluation of transient loss of consciousness to any of six clinical centers participating in the Italian Group for the Study of Syncope in the Elderly (GIS Study).

Measurements: All patients were assessed according to European Society of Cardiology Syncope guidelines and interviewed about symptoms and signs present before syncope.

Results: One hundred seventy-four of 242 patients (75.4%) had noncardiac syncope, and 34 (14.7%) had cardiac syncope; 165 patients (71.1%) related symptoms before the loss of consciousness. When elderly patients with syncope were stratified for the presence and absence of symptoms, noncardiac syncope showed the highest prevalence of symptoms (75.3%, P<.01). Awareness of being about to faint, sweating, blurred vision, and nausea are more prevalent in noncardiac syncope. Dyspnea is more prevalent in cardiac syncope. All symptoms except awareness of being about to faint and weakness had good specificity, but sensitivity was low for all symptoms considered. Multivariate regression analysis adjusted for sex and age indicated that nausea (relative risk (RR)=3.7, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.26-11.2), blurred vision (RR=3.5, 95% CI=1.34-9.59), and sweating (RR=2.8, 95% CI=.21-6.89) were predictive of noncardiac syncope. Dyspnea (RR=5.5, 95% CI=1.0-30.2) was the only symptom predictive of cardiac syncope.

Conclusion: The data show that symptoms such as nausea, blurred vision, and sweating are predictive of noncardiac syncope, whereas only dyspnea is predictive of cardiac syncope in elderly people.

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Comment in

  • Risk of permanent brain injury during syncope.
    Drinka P. Drinka P. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Aug;57(8):1504; author reply 1504-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02370.x. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009. PMID: 19682145 No abstract available.
  • Diagnosing cardiac syncope in older adults.
    Fackrell R, Mac Mahon M. Fackrell R, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Sep;57(9):1733-4; author reply 1734-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02415.x. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009. PMID: 19895451 No abstract available.

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