Introduction: Syncope is infrequent in pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) yet might be indicative of haemodynamic instability. The prognostic role of syncope in PTE has not been well documented.
Objectives: In this study, the association between risk classification of the European Society of Cardiology and syncope was investigated in the normotensive PTE patients.
Methods: We retrospectively screened electronic medical records of patients who were admitted in 2 tertiary care hospital and diagnosis of PTE with computed tomography pulmonary angiography. Patients with hypotension (high risk) at the time of admission were excluded from the study.
Results: Of 5% patients (16/322) had syncope with the proportion of 81.3% (13/16) in the intermediate high risky group, 18.7% (3/16) in intermediate low risk group and 0% in low risk group. Mortality rate was higher in subjects with syncope (25% vs 11.1%) although it was not it was not statistically significant (P = NS). In those with syncope, the central venous thrombus was more frequent than those without it (78.6% vs 30.1%, P = .008). Only heart rate and intermediate high-risk group were retained as independent predictors of syncope selection in the multivariate logistic regression.
Conclusion: Although syncope is positively correlated with the severity of PTE, it does not predict the prognosis alone. Nonetheless, syncope in patients with PTE can be considered as an important alarming stimulus for clinical course.
Keywords: clinical trials; pulmonary embolism; respiratory disease; symptoms.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.