Pediatric syncope: is detailed medical history the key point for differential diagnosis?

Syncope and Unresponsiveness in an Adolescent With Comorbid Cardiac Disease: An Illustrative Case Report and Literature Review of Functional Neurologic Symptom Disorder

BACKGROUND

This case report with an associated literature review explores the challenges, opportunities, and current evidence in creating a thoughtful diagnostic and management plan for an adolescent with functional neurologic symptom disorder and comorbid cardiac disease.

METHODS

We performed a literature review utilizing PubMed to identify the current evidence base related to pediatric functional neurologic symptom disorder in the setting of comorbid cardiac disease. Ultimately, 25 manuscripts were identified for inclusion in this study.

RESULTS

We reported the recent epidemiology, screening, diagnostic, and treatment measures utilized in pediatric syncope with a focus on differentiating psychogenic causes from serious cardiac and benign etiologies. We further described how psychiatric and psychological factors influence assessment, management, and outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides current, evidence-based suggestions for the assessment, diagnosis, and management of pediatric syncope, with an emphasis on recognizing psychogenic causes of syncope. It includes a description of a novel case of functional neurologic symptom disorder in a pediatric patient with structural cardiac disease. The study highlights how the absence of standardized guidelines, heterogeneity in care delivery, and lack of concurrent mental health management led to worse outcomes.

Geçici Bilinç Kaybıyla Başvuran Çocuk Olguların Retrospektif Değerlendirilmesi

Amaç: Çalışmamızın amacı , geçici bilinç kaybı (GBK) yakınması ile başvuran çocuk olguların tanılarının aydınlatılması, anamnez, etiyoloji, özgeçmiş ve soygeçmiş, fizik muayene ve laboratuvar bulgularının, tedavilerinin retrospektif değerlendirilmesidir. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Çalışmaya Süleymen Demirel Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesine GBK yakınmasıyla 1 Ağustos 2017-1 Şubat 2020 tarihleri arasında çocuk polikliniklerine başvuran hastalar dahil edildi, kaydedilen anamnezleri, fizik muayene bulguları detaylı olarak geriye dönük incelendi. Yapılan biyokimyasal laboratuvar incelemeleri, elektrokardiyografi (EKG), transtorasik ekokardiyografi (EKO), 24 saatlik ritm holter EKG, kraniyal manyetik rezonans (MR) görüntüleme, elektroensefalografi (EEG) retrospektif olarak tanıya ve tedaviye yönelik değerlendirildi. Bulgular: Hastaların 110’u (%68.8) kız, 50’si (%31.2) erkek idi. Hastaların ortalama yaşı 11.4 (±4.8) idi. Hastaların geçirdikleri ortalama GBK sayısı 1.6 (±1.2) idi. Çalışmamızdaki hastaların %33’ü tekrarlayan GBK atakları ile başvurmuştu. Çalışmamızda GBK tanısına yönelik yapılan ileri incelemelerde en sık neden vazovagal senkop (VVS) (51 hasta, %31.9), ikinci olarak epilepsi/FK/AFK (febril konvülzyon/afebril konvülzyon) (41 hasta, %25.6), üçüncü olarak psikojenik senkop (28 hasta, %17.5 ) olarak saptanmıştır. Diğer nedenler de sırasıyla durumsal, katılma nöbeti, OH (ortostatik hipotansiyon), migren/SVO (serebrovasküler olay), kardiyojenik, BPPV (benign paroksizmal pozisyonel vertigo) olarak bulunmuştur. Hastalara yapılan biyokimyasal tetkikler, EKG, EKO, 24 saatlik ritm holter EKG, EEG, kraniyal MR incelemeleri analiz edildi ve değerlendirildi. Sonuç: GBK yakınmasıyla başvuran her hastadan ayrıntılı anamnez alınmalı, tam sistemik muayene yapılmalı ve EKG çekilmelidir. Kan testleri, EEG, EKO, nörogörüntüleme, 24 saatlik ritm holter EKG değerlendirmeleri ön tanıya yönelik istenmelidir.

[Syncope in children and adolescents: are the current guidelines being followed?]

BACKGROUND

Syncope in childhood and adolescence is frequent and in most cases benign. A thorough history taking, complete physical examination, electrocardiography and further diagnostic work-up as indicated should rule out possible cardiac syncope.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether the diagnosis of syncope was performed according to the currently valid S2k guideline.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Retrospective study (January 2015-December 2017), University Children's Hospital of Saarland, Homburg, Germany. All patients aged 1-18 years presenting with the primary complaint of syncope were included.

RESULTS

In this study 262 patients presented with a history of syncope (161 female (61.5%), 101 male (38.5%), median age 12.5 ± 3.9 years). Of these, 183 (69.8%) were reflex syncopes, 36 (13.7%) presyncopes, 35 (13.4%) undefined and 8 (3.1%) cardiac syncope. Out of 262 patients, 43 (16.4%) were diagnosed in accordance with the published guidelines and 13/43 (30.2%) correctly received further diagnostic work-up. In 219/262 patients (83.6%) basic diagnostic testing was not sufficient and 135/219 (61.6%) were submitted to further unnecessary diagnostic tests.

CONCLUSION

Better adherence to the syncope guidelines bears the potential to avoid unnecessary and costly auxiliary medical tests while correctly diagnosing patients with syncope.

Designing an openEHR-Based Pipeline for Extracting and Standardizing Unstructured Clinical Data Using Natural Language Processing

Background  Merging disparate and heterogeneous datasets from clinical routine in a standardized and semantically enriched format to enable a multiple use of data also means incorporating unstructured data such as medical free texts. Although the extraction of structured data from texts, known as natural language processing (NLP), has been researched at least for the English language extensively, it is not enough to get a structured output in any format. NLP techniques need to be used together with clinical information standards such as openEHR to be able to reuse and exchange still unstructured data sensibly.

Objectives  The aim of the study is to automatically extract crucial information from medical free texts and to transform this unstructured clinical data into a standardized and structured representation by designing and implementing an exemplary pipeline for the processing of pediatric medical histories.

Methods  We constructed a pipeline that allows reusing medical free texts such as pediatric medical histories in a structured and standardized way by (1) selecting and modeling appropriate openEHR archetypes as standard clinical information models, (2) defining a German dictionary with crucial text markers serving as expert knowledge base for a NLP pipeline, and (3) creating mapping rules between the NLP output and the archetypes. The approach was evaluated in a first pilot study by using 50 manually annotated medical histories from the pediatric intensive care unit of the Hannover Medical School.

Results  We successfully reused 24 existing international archetypes to represent the most crucial elements of unstructured pediatric medical histories in a standardized form. The self-developed NLP pipeline was constructed by defining 3.055 text marker entries, 132 text events, 66 regular expressions, and a text corpus consisting of 776 entries for automatic correction of spelling mistakes. A total of 123 mapping rules were implemented to transform the extracted snippets to an openEHR-based representation to be able to store them together with other structured data in an existing openEHR-based data repository. In the first evaluation, the NLP pipeline yielded 97% precision and 94% recall.

Conclusion  The use of NLP and openEHR archetypes was demonstrated as a viable approach for extracting and representing important information from pediatric medical histories in a structured and semantically enriched format. We designed a promising approach with potential to be generalized, and implemented a prototype that is extensible and reusable for other use cases concerning German medical free texts. In a long term, this will harness unstructured clinical data for further research purposes such as the design of clinical decision support systems. Together with structured data already integrated in openEHR-based representations, we aim at developing an interoperable openEHR-based application that is capable of automatically assessing a patient's risk status based on the patient's medical history at time of admission.

Pediatric Syncope: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES

The aims of the study were to perform the first systematic review of pediatric syncope etiologies and to determine the most common diagnoses with credible intervals (CredIs).

METHODS

Review was performed within Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines and used Embase, Scopus, PubMed, and the Cochrane Controlled Trial databases. The following inclusion criteria for the articles were used: minimum of 10 patients, standard definition of syncope used, subjects who were 21 years or younger, and subjects who were either a consecutive retrospective group or a prospective group. No restrictions were made regarding language of the studies, but an English abstract was required. The following information was collected: purpose of the study, definition of syncope, number of patients, patient age range, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and etiologies of syncope.

RESULTS

Of the 500 articles initially identified, 11 studies met the inclusion criteria and were the basis for this review. Three thousand seven hundred patients were included, ranging in age from 3 months to 21 years. The most common etiologies identified were vasovagal (52.2%; 95% CredI, 50.6-53.9), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (13.1%; 95% CredI, 12.1-14.2), and cardiac causes (4.0%; 95% CredI, 3.39-4.65). A total of 18.3% (95% CredI, 17.0-19.5) of patients were found to have syncope of unknown cause.

CONCLUSIONS

Syncope is a common pediatric complaint. Most cases seen are a result of benign causes, with only a small percentage because of serious medical conditions. In addition, most syncopal episodes in the pediatric population are diagnosed clinically or with minimally invasive testing, emphasizing the importance of a detailed history and physical examination.

Demographic and clinical features of pediatric patients with orthostatic intolerance and an abnormal head-up tilt table test; A retrospective descriptive study

BACKGROUND

Clinical presentation varies in children with Orthostatic Intolerance. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of pediatric patients with orthostatic intolerance (OI) and positive head-up tilt test (HUTT).

METHODS

This study was a retrospective review of clinical data from outpatients over 18 months period.

RESULTS

We included 112 patients with abnormal HUTT results. Females were 78 (70%). Mean age of presentation was 15.6 years (sd: 3.3). Fifteen percent were overweight, and 14% were obese. A headache and syncope were the most frequent presenting symptoms (46% and 29% respectively). Review of systems identified more patients with headaches (84%), Syncope (61%), presyncope (87%) and abdominal pain (29%). Except for fatigue being more prevalent during a review of systems among patients with severe OI (69%) compared to those with moderate OI (46%, p = 0.02), there was no statistically significant difference in the clinical presentation between investigator-defined moderate and severe OI. Comorbidities identified in this cohort were Chiari malformations (9%), idiopathic intracranial hypertension (9%), electroencephalographic abnormalities (8%) and patent foramen ovale (43%).

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescents, mainly females had OI. Patients with OI and abnormal HUTT predominantly had a headache, syncope, and presyncope during the presentation. Eliciting review of systems and using tools such as clinical questionnaire identifies significant clinical presenting features and comorbidities.

Physicians' role in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

The use of unnecessary or excessive medications (inappropriate polypharmacy) is a major health challenge among older adults which is driven by several factors. This study aims to provide in-depth descriptions of the physician's role in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran.

DESIGN

Qualitative content analysis of interviews, field notes and other relevant documents available (eg, medical records). Data collection and analyses were done concurrently to guide the sampling process.

SETTING

Three purposively selected referral hospitals in Tehran, Iran.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 7 physicians, 10 older adults, 3 caregivers and 3 pharmacists with a median age of 54 (IQR 23) years were recruited through convenience sampling.

RESULTS

Emerged categories included misdiagnosis, inappropriate prescribing, insufficient patient education, poor communication, unprofessional behaviour and limited perspectives which highlight the role of physicians in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among older adults in Iran under the main concept of poor medical practice.

CONCLUSION

This study provides valuable insight on the role of physicians in the development of inappropriate polypharmacy among the elderly in the healthcare setting in Iran by exploring the viewpoints of physicians, patients, caregivers and pharmacists. Physicians can be an influential factor in tackling this challenge through proper diagnosis, prescription, patient education and follow-up. In Iran, physicians' practice styles are affected by potentially adverse factors such as the novelty of geriatric medicine, lack of a referral system, patient unfamiliarity with the system and lack of a monitoring system for multiple prescriptions. Furthermore, clinics tend to be overcrowded and visit fees can be low; in this setting, lack of physician assistants leads to limited time allocation to each patient and physician dissatisfaction with their income.

Micturition Syncope in Childhood: How to Recognize and Manage It

Frequently, general pediatricians could face a patient with syncope, which represents approximately 1% to 3% of emergency visits. Micturition syncope is a transient loss of consciousness with onset immediately before, during, or after micturition. Literature evidence indicates that healthy young men are a population with major risk for presenting micturition syncope, with a peak of incidence around 40 to 50 years of age. Usually, this syncope occurs in the morning, after wake-up, or, more generally, when the male patients assume the orthostatic position after a period of supine position in a warm bed. No information on micturition syncope clinical presentation and prevalence in childhood is available in the literature, and probably, this kind of syncope is unrecognized in childhood. We describe 4 unreported pediatric patients with a diagnosis of micturition syncope and well-defined clinical presentation. In all patients, the syncope has been presented in the same conditions: in the morning; after wake-up; in an orthostatic position; just before, after, or during urinary bladder voiding; and with spontaneous recovery in few minutes. Interestingly, 1 patient presented with the syncope during urinary bladder voiding by autocatheterization. In our patients, all investigations made as the first approach in the pediatric emergency department did not show any abnormal results, possibly underlying the syncope episodes. By describing our experience, we want to underline the clinical presentation of micturition syncope and give to the clinicians the elements to recognize and manage it easily in children.

An Unusual Presentation of Arteriovenous Malformation in a Pediatric Patient

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are defined as tortuous connections between arteries and veins that bypass the capillary system. Cerebral AVMs are rare with a general prevalence of 0.5%-1% with approximately one-fifth of these being diagnosed in infancy or childhood. Although most AVMs go undetected, the most common presenting symptom is hemorrhage. Despite a broad differential diagnosis for syncope described in the pediatric literature, there has been no report of AVM as the underlying etiology. We present a case of a seven-year-old female who presented with a single syncopal episode and was later found to have a large AVM involving mainly the thalamus on the right side and the basal ganglia with large intraventricular draining veins into the galenic venous system. To our knowledge, this is the only case reported of an AVM presenting as syncope in a pediatric patient.

Pediatric Emergency Department Study of Cardiac Risk in the Novel Patient (PED SCReeN)

OBJECTIVE

We compare pediatric cardiac risk classification and management recommendations between emergency physicians (EPs) and pediatric cardiologists (PCs) in children with a suspected new cardiac disorder.

METHODS

We prospectively compared the work-up, assessment, classification, and disposition of patients aged 0 to 21 years presenting to the emergency department with a potential cardiac etiology in whom an electrocardiogram (ECG) was performed. The criterion standard was a blinded assessment by the PC-electrophysiologist after review of the history, physical examination, ancillary tests, and ECG.

RESULTS

In 508 subjects, the median age was 15 years (interquartile range, 11-17 years), with a slight female predominance (281, 55.3%). The most common reasons for obtaining an ECG were: chest pain (158, 31.1%) and syncope, presyncope, or possible seizure (146, 28.7%). The most common auxiliary study was a chest radiograph (432, 85% of subjects). A total of 617 electrocardiographic diagnoses were made by EPs and 984 diagnoses by PCs. Sensitivities and specificities varied by discrete class, but disposition decisions were concordant (home or admission). The EPs were highly accurate for the need for emergent cardiology involvement (area under the curve, 0.89).

CONCLUSIONS

The EPs and PCs agreed on the evaluation and disposition of children at either low risk or high risk for an acute cardiac presentation in the emergency department. There was considerable variation in management recommendations in the intermediate risk children needing cardiology outpatient follow-up. We recommend the development and implementation of focused training modules on emergency pediatric cardiology and increased communication with pediatric cardiology to improve patient safety and resource utilization.

Non epileptic paroxysmal events in childhood

Non epileptic paroxysmal events are recurrent movement disorders with acute onset and ending, which may mimic epilepsy. The duration, place, timing of the attacks, and state of conciousness may confuse pediatricians about the diagnosis of epilepsy and non epileptic paroxysmal events. The key point in the diagnosis is taking an accurate and detailed history. Wrong diagnosis can give rise to anxiety of both the family and the child, interruptions in the child's education, limitations in career planning, and irreversible damages in the long term. The diagnosis can prevent unnecessary drug use and psychological damage. This review aims to discuss the clinical findings, treatment, and differential diagnoses of non epileptic paroxysmal events, and to increase awareness about non epileptic paroxysmal events among pediatricians.

Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association Position Statement on the Approach to Syncope in the Pediatric Patient

Pediatric syncope is a common problem that peaks in adolescence, for which there are few data or evidence-based consensus on investigation and management. This document offers guidance for practical evaluation/management of pediatric patients (age < 19 years) with syncope encountered in the acute or primary care setting. The writing committee used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. Most syncope is vasovagal, which is benign and does not require extensive investigation. This Position Statement presents recommendations to encourage an efficient and cost-effective disposition for the many patients with a benign cause of syncope, and highlights atypical or concerning clinical findings associated with other causes of transient loss of consciousness. The prodrome and the circumstances around which the event occurred are the most important aspects of the history. Syncope occurring midexertion suggests a cardiac etiology. A family history, which includes sudden death in the young or from unknown causes or causes that might be suspected to be other than natural can be a red flag. The electrocardiogram is the most frequently ordered test, but the yield is low and the test is not cost-effective when applied broadly to a population of patients with syncope. We recommend an electrocardiogram when the history is not suggestive of vasovagal syncope and there are features suggestive of a cardiac cause like absence of a prodrome, midexertional event, family history of early-life sudden death or heart disease, abnormal physical examination, or new medication with potential cardiotoxicity. For most patients with syncope, medical testing is not required and lifestyle modifications without medications suffice to prevent recurrences.

Syncope is a frequently under-diagnosed condition in infants and toddlers and has similar features to those seen in adolescents and adults

AIM

Vagal syncope may not be readily recognised by the caregivers of younger children, often leading to extensive diagnostic evaluation. Our aim was to determine the characteristics of syncope in younger children and to assess whether this age group was more prone to undergoing extensive diagnostic work-ups and receiving wrong aetiological diagnoses.

METHODS

We collected clinical data on children up to six years of age, referred to our paediatric neurology clinic between 2007 and 2014 following one or more episodes of sudden loss of consciousness.

RESULTS

A family history of syncope was present in 59.5% of the 37 children, and a trigger for syncope was identified in 30 children. Most of the episodes were short, with witnesses reporting an immediate or quick recovery. Most of the children underwent diagnostic procedures, particularly an electroencephalogram, and all the results were normal. Epilepsy did not develop in any of these cases. Syncope recurred in 22 patients during a two-year follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Vagal syncope had similar features in toddlers and young children to those seen in adolescents and adults. Its diagnosis should be considered following loss of consciousness due to an identifiable trigger and rapidly regaining consciousness to avoid unnecessary diagnostic procedures and hospitalisation.

Current approaches to the clinical assessment of syncope in pediatric population

INTRODUCTION

Syncope is one of the most common clinical problem in children. This disorder is characterized by transient, spontaneously self-terminating loss of consciousness with brief duration and complete recovery. This situation is usually alarming for the families of patients. The mechanism of syncope is transient global brain hypoperfusion to levels below those tolerated by cerebrovascular autoregulation. Syncope can occur with many different etiologies in the pediatric population.

CLASSIFICATION

Syncopes are divided into three major categories as neurally mediated syncope, cardiovascular-mediated syncope, and non-cardiovascular syncope.

CLINICAL FEATURES

The major challenge in the assessment of children with syncope is that most children are asymptomatic at the time of their presentation, therefore making a careful and detailed history and a comprehensive physical examination essential in all patients. A trigger stimulus is detected in some cases, and this is an important clinical clue for the diagnosis. Cardiac causes of syncope in children are rare but can be life threatening and have the highest risk of morbidity and mortality. Misdiagnosis of epilepsy is common in patients presenting with syncope; therefore, the differential diagnosis between epileptic seizures and syncope is very important. It should be remembered that the evaluation of syncope in children is costly and diagnostic workup has a limited diagnostic yield.

CONCLUSION

The aim of this article is to present different types of syncope and to provide new practical clinical approaches to the diagnosis, investigation, and management in the pediatric population.

Update on diagnosis and management of childhood epilepsies

OBJECTIVES

To review the current evidence base for the diagnosis and management of the childhood epilepsies and to draw attention to the current gaps in this evidence base. The focus will be on therapeutic aspects. Current International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) terminology will be described and used throughout the discussion. The review will draw attention to recent advances that have been made in both our understanding and treatment of the childhood epilepsies. Potential future directions for research and treatment options will be discussed.

SOURCES

Original articles relevant to the subject were obtained from the MedLine database using pertinent MeSH terms. Relevant papers were read and assimilated. Citation searching was used.

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS

Epilepsy is a major cause of global disease burden. Childhood epilepsies are a heterogeneous group of conditions. A multi-axial diagnostic approach should be taken prior to making treatment and management decisions for any individual patient. For the majority of patients, successful control of seizures can be achieved with a single medication. However, a significant minority develops refractory disease. Epilepsy surgery can provide cure for a carefully selected group of these cases.

CONCLUSIONS

There remain significant gaps the evidence base for treatment in several areas of childhood epilepsy. Concerted multi-center efforts should be made to try to close these gaps. A personalized medicine approach may help to reduce the proportion of refractory cases of childhood epilepsy in future.