Pulmonary embolism presenting as syncope: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Despite the high incidence of pulmonary embolism its diagnosis continues to be difficult, primarily because of the vagaries of symptoms and signs in presentation. Conversely, syncope is a relatively easy clinical symptom to detect, but has varied etiologies that lead to a documented cause in only 58% of syncopal events. Syncope as the presenting symptom of pulmonary embolism has proven to be a difficult clinical correlation to make. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 26-year-old Caucasian man with pulmonary embolism induced-syncope and review the pathophysiology and diagnostic considerations. CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary embolism should be considered in the differential diagnosis of every syncopal event that presents at an emergency department.