Blackout? cause: Misdiagnosis of cardiac arrest

Abstract

Patients with syncope or epilepsy commonly present to primary or secondary care physicians. This lesson presents two patients, both known to have cardiac disease, with implanted cardiac devices, who presented with loss of consciousness, who were initially investigated for epilepsy, but were subsequently shown to have had a cardiac arrhythmia, diagnosed following device interrogation. © Royal College of Physicians, 2009. All rights reserved.