Burden of recurrent syncope and injuries and the usefulness of implantable cardiac monitors: insights from a nationwide longitudinal cohort analysis

Syncope Recurrence and Downstream Diagnostic Testing after Insertable Cardiac Monitor Placement for Syncope

Despite advances in syncope evaluation strategies and risk stratification, the high cost of syncope is largely driven by extensive and often repetitive testing. This analysis of a large deidentified US claims database compared the use of diagnostic tests, therapeutic procedures, and the recurrence rate of acute syncope events before and after placement of an insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) in syncope patients. The patients had a minimum of 1 year of continuous enrollment before and 2 years after ICM placement. Among 2140 patients identified, a statistically significant reduction in the use of 14 out of 18 tests was observed during follow-up compared with pre-ICM testing. During the 2-year follow-up, 28.3% of patients underwent cardiac therapeutic interventions after a median of 127 days. Significantly fewer patients experienced acute syncope events during the 1st and 2nd years of ICM follow-up compared with the 1-year pre-ICM period, and the frequency of events per patient also decreased. In conclusion, reductions in diagnostic testing and acute syncope events were observed after ICM placement in a large real-world cohort of unexplained syncope patients. Further studies are needed to prospectively assess the impact of ICM vs. short-term monitoring on patient outcomes and healthcare utilization.