Abstract 10047: A Case of Recurrent Miscarriages Due to Malignant Situational Cardioinhibitory Nerurocardiogenic Syncope Treated With Pacemaker Placement

Abstract

Case Presentation: A 29- year-old G5A4 woman with history of seizure disorder presented with severe nausea and vomiting (N&V) with transient loss of consciousness with twitching motor activity at 7-weeks' gestation. She had no post-ictal state, but a brief period of nausea and lethargy with a rapid return to baseline. Her medical history only included a diagnosis of seizure disorder since childhood treated with different anti-epileptic agents. She reported 4 first-trimester abortions secondary to reported intractable recurrent seizures during pregnancy accompanied by significant morning sickness. Her physical examination, laboratory tests, brain CT, EEG, EKG, and a trans-thoracic echocardiogram were unremarkable. Levetiracetam was started. While monitored in telemetry she had an episode of complete heart block for 8-seconds with ventricular standstill triggered by a bout of severe N&V resulting in convulsive syncope. The diagnosis of situational cardioinhibitory malignant Neurocardiogenic Syncope (NS) was made. She underwent dual-chamber pacemaker implantation with complete resolution of her symptoms. After 6-months Levetiracetam was discontinued. Her pregnancy progressed to term delivering a healthy newborn. She remains asymptomatic 4 years after her pacemaker implantation. Discussion: Malignant NS is a type of neurally-mediated syncope that can lead to significant morbidity and occasional mortality. Situational syncope occurs when a vaso-vagal reflex occurs in response to a specific trigger, in the present case straining is associated with N&V and has not been described with miscarriages. In this case, the pronounced vagal response to N&V resulted in ventricular stand-still causing brain hypoperfusion and seizures, which are associated with miscarriage due to slower fetal heart rate, fetal hypoxia, fetal injury, placental hypoperfusion, placental abruption or trauma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case reported in the literature of recurrent miscarriages due to NS successfully treated with a pacemaker. Conclusions: Convulsive syncope can result in miscarriages and should remain in the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with suspected seizures associated with vaso-vagal triggers during pregnancy.