Syncope Management Guidelines at work: First steps towards assessing clinical utility

When it comes to assessment of syncope, unnecessary and cost-ineffective testing remains an unfortunate feature of current clinical practice. Guidelines offer physicians the help they need to achieve diagnostic goals in a more efficient manner. Despite certain criticisms noted earlier, the findings of Bartoletti and co-workers⁷ and Brignole et al.⁸ are important stepping-stones towards validating the utility of the ESC Syncope Guidelines and encouraging their universal application.