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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Is Frequent Syncope Life Threatening?

Sir, My father is 74 years old. Last year he underwent Mitral valve replacement surgery in Railway hospital . He was already suffering from COPD. The surgery was successfully done and he was sent home. For the past few months he is suffering from unexplained falls and we took him to the Tilt Table Test and they said the condition cannot be cured and he has to follow some life style changes like not venturing into busy places like roads etc and how to alert the passers by if he can predict syncopes. We advised him to stay put in home and do some walking inside home. But since three days he is falling frequently and we have taken him to the local heart specialist who after taking ECG and ECHO advised him to take Beta-blockers and one FLOUICART AND GUDRON. I don*t know what are they?. Of late my father appeared to have lost his weight and also his trademark confidence and talking about last days etc..etc. We, especially my mother is worried.. Kindly advise whether these frequent syncopes are life threatening?
Mon, 16 Feb 2015
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Cardiologist 's  Response
Thank you for your question! Seems that your father is experiencing frequent episodes of synsope. The right think to do is to explore why that is happening, and if the scope is realised, then an appropriate treatment attitude will proceed. There are several reasons for a syncope to develop; they may be classified in some groups: cardiac, neurologic, neurovegetative reasons, etc. As your doctor has performed cardiac ECHO he must have excluded recent organic cardiac reasons for syncope. The other thing to do is to exclude arrhythmic cardiac reasons; but in order to rele out those your father has to perform an ambulatory 24 to 48 hours ECG monitoring; and if neccessary to implant a loop recorder ( that was Fowchart and Gud.) in order to rule out not frequent happening arrhythmia. I don't know the results of Tilt Table test, but as the doctor has prescribed Beta-blockers probably any sort of inappropriate postural tachycardia syndrome may have been a conclusion. There are different neurovegetative syndroms responsible for causing syncope. They should be ruled out. Your father should perform also neck (carotid) artery ultrasound to exclude any problems. And of course a neurologist consultation would be highly recommended. Any neurologic symptomatology should be screen in order to make a better orientation to differential diagnosis.
To cut it short and clear to you first of all arrhythic reasons should be immediately excluded with exams I recommended; after that you could be more relaxed and have enough time to proceed to other reasons.
Hope to have been helpful. Greetings from Dr. Iliri
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Is Frequent Syncope Life Threatening?

Thank you for your question! Seems that your father is experiencing frequent episodes of synsope. The right think to do is to explore why that is happening, and if the scope is realised, then an appropriate treatment attitude will proceed. There are several reasons for a syncope to develop; they may be classified in some groups: cardiac, neurologic, neurovegetative reasons, etc. As your doctor has performed cardiac ECHO he must have excluded recent organic cardiac reasons for syncope. The other thing to do is to exclude arrhythmic cardiac reasons; but in order to rele out those your father has to perform an ambulatory 24 to 48 hours ECG monitoring; and if neccessary to implant a loop recorder ( that was Fowchart and Gud.) in order to rule out not frequent happening arrhythmia. I don t know the results of Tilt Table test, but as the doctor has prescribed Beta-blockers probably any sort of inappropriate postural tachycardia syndrome may have been a conclusion. There are different neurovegetative syndroms responsible for causing syncope. They should be ruled out. Your father should perform also neck (carotid) artery ultrasound to exclude any problems. And of course a neurologist consultation would be highly recommended. Any neurologic symptomatology should be screen in order to make a better orientation to differential diagnosis. To cut it short and clear to you first of all arrhythic reasons should be immediately excluded with exams I recommended; after that you could be more relaxed and have enough time to proceed to other reasons. Hope to have been helpful. Greetings from Dr. Iliri