Cardiovascular risk after hospitalisation for unexplained syncope and orthostatic hypotension

To investigate the relationship of hospital admissions due to unexplained syncope and orthostatic hypotension (OH) with subsequent cardiovascular events and mortality.

We analysed a population-based prospective cohort of 30 528 middle-aged individuals (age 58±8 years; males, 40%). Adjusted Cox regression models were applied to assess the impact of unexplained syncope/OH hospitalisations on cardiovascular events and mortality, excluding subjects with prevalent cardiovascular disease.

After a median follow-up of 15±4 years, 524 (1.7%) and 504 (1.7%) participants were hospitalised for syncope or OH, respectively, yielding 1.2 hospital admissions per 1000 person-years for each diagnosis. Syncope hospitalisations increased with age (HR, per 1 year: 1.07, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.09), higher systolic blood pressure (HR, per 10 mm Hg: 1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12), antihypertensive treatment (HR: 1.26, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.59), use of diuretics (HR: 1.77, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.38) and prevalent cardiovascular disease (HR: 1.59, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.23), whereas OH hospitalisations increased with age (HR: 1.11, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.12) and prevalent diabetes (HR: 1.82, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.70). After exclusion of 1399 patients with prevalent cardiovascular disease, a total of 473/464 patients were hospitalised for unexplained syncope/OH before any cardiovascular event. Hospitalisation for unexplained syncope predicted coronary events (HR: 1.85, 95% CI 1.49 to 2.30), heart failure (HR: 2.24, 95% CI 1.65 to 3.04), atrial fibrillation (HR: 1.84, 95% CI 1.50 to 2.26), aortic valve stenosis (HR: 2.06, 95% CI 1.28 to 3.32), all-cause mortality (HR: 1.22, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.37) and cardiovascular death (HR: 1.72, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.42). OH-hospitalisation predicted stroke (HR: 1.66, 95% CI 1.24 to 2.23), heart failure (HR: 1.78, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.62), atrial fibrillation (HR: 1.89, 95% CI 1.48 to 2.41) and all-cause mortality (HR: 1.14, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.30).

Patients discharged with the diagnosis of unexplained syncope or OH show higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality with only partial overlap between these two conditions.