Echocardiography in patients with syncope

Syncope is defined as a temporary, abrupt loss of consciousness with spontaneous return to baseline. This chapter offers a framework for a focused approach to syncope. A detailed history and physical examination establishes the pretest probability that the syncope is of cardiac origin. Although echocardiography is not indicated for many cases of syncope, it can be a valuable tool to risk stratify syncope when it is suspected to be of cardiac origin. Transthoracic echo (TTE) is an efficient means of rapidly identifying structural heart disease, which suggests a higher probability of cardiogenic syncope and places the patient in a higher risk category than a patient with a structurally normal heart.