Identification of high-risk syncope related to ventricular fibrillation in patients with Brugada syndrome

Syncope in patients with Brugada syndrome is usually associated with ventricular tachyarrhythmia, but some episodes of syncope can be related to autonomic disorders.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of syncope to differentiate high-risk syncope episodes from low-risk events in patients with Brugada syndrome.

We studied 84 patients with type 1 electrocardiogram and syncope. Patients were divided into 2 groups: patients with prodrome (prodromal group; n = 41) and patients without prodrome (nonprodromal group; n = 43).

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) was documented at index event in 19 patients: 4 patients (21%) with documented VF experienced a prodrome prior to the onset of VF, whereas 15 patients (79%) did not have symptoms prior to documented VF (P <.01). Twenty-seven patients in the prodromal group and 7 patients in the nonprodromal group were considered to have syncope related to autonomic dysfunction. Syncope in other patients was defined as unexplained syncope. During the follow-up period (48 ± 48 months), recurrent syncope due to VF occurred in 13 patients among patients with only unexplained syncope and was more frequent in the nonprodromal group (n = 10) than in the prodromal group (n = 3; P = .044). In multivariate analysis, blurred vision (hazard ratio [HR] 0.20) and abnormal respiration (HR 2.18) and fragmented QRS (HR 2.39) were independently associated with the occurrence of VF.

Syncope with prodrome, especially blurred vision, suggests a benign etiology of syncope in patients with Brugada syndrome.