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Researchers found that both the Canadian Syncope Risk Score (CSRS) and the FAINT score can inform clinical management of syncope in a prospective, observational study validating the tools published in JAMA Network Open. The primary outcome was a serious adverse outcome within 30 days of an emergency department (ED) visit. Among 1,263 patients aged 40 years or older with syncope or presyncope presenting to 6 urban EDs in the United States, 5.9% experienced a serious adverse event within 30 days and 4.9% had a serious cardiac outcome. Investigators then validated the CSRS and FAINT score and compared them against physician judgment alone. The CSRS demonstrated an AUROC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) of 0.72 for serious adverse outcomes, meaning it had moderate ability to separate higher-risk from lower-risk patients for serious adverse outcomes. Meanwhile, the FAINT score achieved an AUROC of 0.76 for serious cardiac outcomes, meaning it performed somewhat better for predicting serious cardiac outcomes. A low-risk FAINT score (0 points) showed 96.7% sensitivity and a 98.8% negative predictive value for serious cardiac events.Â
Measure for measure: What’s important is that these are objective tools to stratify the risk of syncope patients to assist clinicians with patient care decisions. The authors concluded that both tools could help identify low-risk syncope patients and support safer discharge decisions. More information about the tools can be found online: Canadian Syncope Risk Score and FAINT score.