Coseriu, Giorgia, Schiop-Tentea, Patricia, Apetrei, Csilla-Andrea et al. · Journal of clinical medicine · 2024 · DOI
This review examines how the size and function of the heart relate to fainting episodes in people with reflex syncope. Researchers found that people with smaller hearts and very forceful heartbeats are more prone to fainting, and this pattern is also seen in some people with chronic fatigue syndrome. Understanding these heart differences may help doctors predict who will faint again and choose better treatments.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS research because it identifies a specific cardiac phenotype (small heart with high contractility) that appears in both reflex syncope and chronic fatigue syndrome patients. Understanding these overlapping cardiac abnormalities may clarify why ME/CFS patients often experience orthostatic intolerance and syncope, and could support development of cardiac-targeted treatments. The proposed predictive parameters could improve risk stratification in ME/CFS populations prone to syncope.
This review does not establish causation—it identifies associations between cardiac geometry and syncope recurrence. It does not prove that all ME/CFS patients have these cardiac changes, nor does it establish whether small heart size causes syncope or vice versa. The study cannot determine which treatment strategies are most effective, only that geometry parameters may have predictive utility.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Coseriu, Giorgia, Schiop-Tentea, Patricia, Apetrei, Csilla-Andrea, Mindreanu, Iulia-Georgiana, Sarb, Adriana-Daniela, Moldovan, Madalina-Patricia, et al. (2024). Cardiac Geometry and Function in Patients with Reflex Syncope.. Journal of clinical medicine. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13226852
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-coseriu-2024-cardiac-geometry,
author = {Coseriu, Giorgia and Schiop-Tentea, Patricia and Apetrei, Csilla-Andrea and Mindreanu, Iulia-Georgiana and Sarb, Adriana-Daniela and Moldovan, Madalina-Patricia and Lazar, Roxana Daiana and Avram, Teodora and Chiorescu, Roxana and Gusetu, Gabriel and Pop, Sorin and Heist, Edwin Kevin and Blendea, Dan},
title = {Cardiac Geometry and Function in Patients with Reflex Syncope.},
journal = {Journal of clinical medicine},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.3390/jcm13226852},
note = {PubMed: 39597995},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/coseriu-2024-cardiac-geometry},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/coseriu-2024-cardiac-geometry
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