Background: Implantable loop recorders are used for diagnosis of otherwise unexplained syncope. Here we report our center’s experience.
Patients and Methods: This was a single center prospective study. Twenty nine patients with unexplained syncope were enrolled.
Results: Mean age was 63 years (26-91), 55% were male, 83% underwent nonrevealing evaluation with 24 hour ECG, mean ejection fraction was 54% (30%-65%). Forty five percent of patients were diagnosed with an electrophysiological abnormality, requiring device implantation (38% had pauses, and 7% had either NSVT or VT); 41% underwent device implantation: 34% pacemakers and 7% defibrillators. There was no significant difference in age, sex or left ventricular ejection fraction between patients diagnosed with an electrophysiological abnormality and those without it.
Conclusion: implantable loop recorder is a valuable tool in diagnosing unexplained syncope. Patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics are not helpful to predict the need for device therapy in this group of patients and should not guide use of ILR.
