Key result
Age at first syncope as a diagnostic tool may be subject to patient selection bias, as excluding classic vasovagal syncope or orthostatic hypotension cases impacts the evaluated population.
Why the study?
Does age at first syncope help assess the probable cause in patients presenting with syncope?
Does age at first syncope help assess the probable cause in patients presenting with syncope?
Patient selection bias must be carefully considered when evaluating the utility of age at first syncope as a diagnostic tool for determining its probable cause.
Illustration depicting how patient selection may bias findings. It may reasonably be assumed that only a portion of all syncope/collapse patients are evaluated and from that subset of all patients many were excluded from the study (Left) for various reasons. These excluded patients (e.g., classic VVS or OH cases) would impact the subset of the overall patient population evaluated for first syncope (Right) and inevitably the conclusion that age at first syncope may be a helpful diagnostic tool (see subsection entitled Limitations in this Editorial).
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Colburn et al. (2022) conducted an editorial in Syncope. Age at first syncope was evaluated. Age at first syncope as a diagnostic tool may be subject to patient selection bias, as excluding classic vasovagal syncope or orthostatic hypotension cases impacts the evaluated population.
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