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March 1, 2007Internal and Emergency MedicineOpen Access

Five patients (5%, 95% CI=0.8%-8%) had an abnormal head CT, all of whom were >65 years of age and had focal neurologic findings, new headache, or physical signs of trauma.

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Why the study?

What is the diagnostic yield of routine head CT in emergency department patients presenting with syncope?

Population

113 adults presenting with syncope to an urban tertiary-care emergency department who underwent head CT, out…

Design

Cohort

Follow-up

30-day

Authors

SGShamai A. GrossmanCFChristopher FischerJBJessica Bar

Discussion

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Member takes

Overview

May support selective head CT in syncope; leaves open safe reduction pending prospective validation.

Structured PICO

What is the diagnostic yield of routine head CT in emergency department patients presenting with syncope?

P
Population
113 adults (age ≥18) presenting with syncope (loss of consciousness) to an urban tertiary-care emergency department who underwent head CT, out of 293 eligible patients. Excluded: persistent altered mental status, drug-related or post-trauma LOC, seizure, or hypoglycaemia.
I
Intervention
Routine head CT
O
Outcome
Abnormal head CT including subarachnoid, subdural or parenchymal haemorrhage, infarction, signs of acute stroke and newly diagnosed brain masssurrogate

Routine head CT in patients presenting with syncope has a low diagnostic yield (5%) and could be safely reduced by applying clinical criteria such as age and presence of neurologic or trauma signs.

Cite This Study

Grossman et al. (2007) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a87d977401d5d0676bb523dhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-007-0010-5
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Predictor variables of abnormal imaging findings of syncope in the emergency department2018 · 5 citations
  2. 2The evaluation of syncope in a predominantly black population: Focus on neuroimaging2016 · 2 citations
  3. 3Clinical significance of head CT scan in patients admitted to the emergency department with mild head trauma2026
  4. 4External validation of the emergency CT head score to reduce non-trauma imaging: a multicentre retrospective study2026
  5. 5Emergency department CT scan utilization and findings in geriatric patients presenting with non-traumatic headache2024