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Sleep Fainting: A Neurocardiogenic Entity, Hunaina Shahab, Ambreen A. Sonawalla, Maryam Khan, Aman Qureshi

Section of Cardiology

Fainting is a common clinical presentation, with vagally mediated (neurocardiogenic) causes being the most common for syncope presentation to the emergency room, and for hospital admissions. Classic teaching is that upright posture is a prerequisite for vagally mediated syncope (VMS) and that syncope in the supine position has more sinister causes. We present five patients, three males and two females, with a mean age of 44.4 (range 29-67) years, who presented with VMS in the supine position (sleep fainting). Four patients also had a history of classic upright syncope. Based on their clinical features and thorough investigations, we excluded other …