ArticleAnnals of emergency medicine2020
Risk Stratification of Older Adults Who Present to the Emergency Department With Syncope: The FAINT Score.
Article in Annals of emergency medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04533425 (Practical Approaches to Care in Emergency Syncope), which is not on this map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Practical Approaches to Care in Emergency Syncope
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Serious outcomes among emergency department patients with presyncope: A systematic review.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Risk-stratification tools for emergency department patients with syncope: A systematic review and meta-analysis of direct evidence for SAEM GRACE.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Syncope Time Frames for Adverse Events after Emergency Department Presentation: An Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Pooled it
- Management of Syncope in Geriatric Patients: Are 2018 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines Still Relevant?Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Sex Differences in Clinical Outcomes and Resource Utilization Among Emergency Department Patients With Unexplained Syncope or Presyncope: A Prospective, Observational, Cohort Study.Annals of emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- A Narrative Review of Syncope Decision Rules: A Case for Point-of-Care Cardiac Ultrasound for Cardiac Syncope.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Validation of 2 Syncope Risk Scores and Comparison With Physician Risk Estimation.JAMA network open · 2026Observational
- Design and rationale of the RISC-trial: multicentreEuropean heart journal open · 2026Article
- Serious Cardiac Outcomes and Physician Estimation of Risk in Emergency Department Patients With Presyncope Versus Syncope.Annals of emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Diagnostic and prognostic value of troponins and natriuretic peptides in syncope: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy · 2025Article
- Analysis of risk factors for adverse events associated with cardiogenic syncope due to coronary artery disease in the elderly.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2025Article
- Machine Learning Methods for Predicting Syncope Severity in the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Analysis.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Number needed to call in emergency care research: Postenrollment follow-up data from a multicenter prospective syncope study.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2025Article
- Factors associated with incentive redemption among participants in a multicenter prospective syncope clinical study.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2024Article
- Changes in Clinical Management Following 14-Day Ambulatory ECG Monitoring Following Emergency Department Evaluation for Unexplained Syncope.Annals of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Recent Advances and Future Directions in Syncope Management: A Comprehensive Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Predictive value of isolated very low QRS voltage in tilt-table test for neurally mediated syncope.SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- Development and Validation of a Novel Predictive Model for the Early Differentiation of Cardiac and Non-Cardiac Syncope.International journal of general medicine · 2024Article
- Application of five risk stratification tools for syncope in older adults.The Journal of international medical research · 2024Article
- Comparison of syncope risk scores in predicting the prognosis of patients presenting to the emergency department with syncope.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 16 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectiveOlder adults with syncope are commonly treated in the emergency department (ED). We seek to derive a novel risk-stratification tool to predict 30-day serious cardiac outcomes.
methodsWe performed a prospective, observational study of older adults (≥60 years) with unexplained syncope or near syncope who presented to 11 EDs in the United States. Patients with a serious diagnosis identified in the ED were excluded. We collected clinical and laboratory data on all patients. Our primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality or serious cardiac outcome.
resultsWe enrolled 3,177 older adults with unexplained syncope or near syncope between April 2013 and September 2016. Mean age was 73 years (SD 9.0 years). The incidence of the primary outcome was 5.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.9% to 6.5%). Using Bayesian logistic regression, we derived the FAINT score: history of heart failure, history of cardiac arrhythmia, initial abnormal ECG result, elevated pro B-type natriuretic peptide, and elevated high-sensitivity troponin T. A FAINT score of 0 versus greater than or equal to 1 had sensitivity of 96.7% (95% CI 92.9% to 98.8%) and specificity 22.2% (95% CI 20.7% to 23.8%), respectively. The FAINT score tended to be more accurate than unstructured physician judgment: area under the curve 0.704 (95% CI 0.669 to 0.739) versus 0.630 (95% CI 0.589 to 0.670).
conclusionAmong older adults with syncope or near syncope of potential cardiac cause, a FAINT score of zero had a reasonably high sensitivity for excluding death and serious cardiac outcomes at 30 days. If externally validated, this tool could improve resource use for this common condition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.