Benefit of Pacemaker Therapy in Patients With Presumed Neurally Mediated Syncope and Documented Asystole Is Greater When Tilt Test Is Negative

Abstract

In the Third International Study on Syncope of Uncertain Etiology (ISSUE-3), cardiac pacing was effective in reducing recurrence of syncope in patients with presumed neurally mediated syncope (NMS) and documented asystole but syncope still recurred in 25% of them at 2 years. We have investigated the role of tilt testing (TT) in predicting recurrences. In 136 patients enrolled in the ISSUE-3, TT was positive in 76 and negative in 60. An asystolic response predicted a similar asystolic form during implantable loop recorder monitoring, with a positive predictive value of 86%. The corresponding values were 48% in patients with non-asystolic TT and 58% in patients with negative TT (P=0.001 versus asystolic TT). Fifty-two patients (26 TT+ and 26 TT-) with asystolic neurally mediated syncope received a pacemaker. Syncope recurred in 8 TT+ and in 1 TT- patients. At 21 months, the estimated product-limit syncope recurrence rates were 55% and 5%, respectively (P=0.004). The TT+ recurrence rate was similar to that seen in 45 untreated patients (control group), which was 64% (P=0.75). The recurrence rate was similar between 14 patients with asystolic and 12 with non-asystolic responses during TT (P=0.53). Cardiac pacing was effective in neurally mediated syncope patients with documented asystolic episodes in whom TT was negative; conversely, there was insufficient evidence of efficacy from this data set in patients with a positive TT even when spontaneous asystole was documented. Present observations are unexpected and need to be confirmed by other studies. Clinical Trial Registration- URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01463358.