Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Clinical Review

Neurocardiogenic syncope

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7461.336 (Published 05 August 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:336

Rapid Response:

Re: Syncope and TIAs

Dear Dr. Gupta,

Thank you for your comments. You are indeed correct that the European
Society of Cardiology guidelines on syncope 1 specifically mention TIAs as
a cause of “non-syncopal attacks (commonly misdiagnosed as syncope).”
Fogoros identifies TIAs as a cause of syncope from neurologic disorders in
his textbook, Electrophysiologic Testing.2
We agree that there is a distinction between syncope and TIAs and that the
management is very different. Thank you for emphasizing this point.

Sincerely,
Carol Chen-Scarabelli
Tiziano M. Scarabelli

References:

1. Task Force on Syncope, European Society of Cardiology†: M.
Brignole (Chairman), P. Alboni, D. Benditt, L. Bergfeldt, J. J. Blanc, P.
E. Bloch Thomsen, J. G. van Dijk, A. Fitzpatrick, S. Hohnloser, J.
Janousek, W. Kapoor, R. A. Kenny, P. Kulakowski, A. Moya, A. Raviele, R.
Sutton, G. Theodorakis and W. Wieling. Guidelines on management (diagnosis
and treatment) of syncope* European Heart Journal (2001) 22, 1256–1306.

2. Fogoros RN. Practical Cardiac Diagnosis Series;
Electrophysiological Testing, 3rd edition. 1999. Blackwell Publishing,
Malden, Massachusetts.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

11 August 2004
Carol A Chen-Scarabelli
cardiovascular nurse practitioner
Tiziano M. Scarabelli
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Michigan, USA 48105