[Transesophageal electrophysiologic study: utility in the diagnosis of syncope]. / Utilidad del estudio electrofisiológico transesofágico en el diagnóstico del síncope.

Neurocardiogenic and arrhythmic syncope are very common and may be found in many patients in Emergency Departments or admitted to hospitals. Technologic advances now allow etiologic diagnosis to be determined but the importance of a detailed clinical history and physical examination can not be overemphasized in the evaluation of syncope, thereby to avoid some costly or invasive procedures. The recent introduction of the head-up tilt test alone or in combination with electrophysiologic studies, has significantly improved our ability to diagnose the etiology of syncope in many cases. Suspicion of an arrhythmic cause of syncope does not always require an invasive electrophysiologic study since the transesophageal electrophysiologic study is useful and provides a high diagnostic yield in the evaluation of non ventricular arrhythmic syncope, such as in the sick sinus syndrome, atrio-ventricular block or in supraventricular tachycardia and for the study of atrial stability. The transesophageal electrophysiologic study is an inexpensive non invasive procedure which does not require complex hospitalary installations.

[Pain in psychopathology. Brief phenomenological analysis]. / La sofferenza in psicopatologia. Cenni di analisi fenomenologica.

The problem of pain is felt more and more by people at various levels of privacy and social life. It is important to examine the possibility of pain as "communicative metalanguage", or language of languages. This language is deeply analogic, metaphoric, symbolic, experienced. The authors, in this paper, try to consider the problem of pain from a psychopathologic point of view and outline some lines of phenomenological analysis, from depression to schizophrenia.