Broken Heart Syndrome

Well, I think you guys must have been experiencing a heartbreak or two (or maybe more). Break up, rejection, being cheated, or left by someone you loved may cause it. But do you know that a broken heart not only affecting your mind but also your body. From stuff like discomfort in your stomach, loss of appetite, until insomnia probably because you have so many things in mind. But a broken heart could expose you to some grave things also. Have you ever heard of broken heart syndrome? The first time I heard about this somewhat rare disease is on TV series Royal Pain. When a healthy young lady collapse and had a couple episodes of sudden chest pain, usually preceded with emotional strain (worries, break up). Broken heart syndrome is or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is a spontaneously reversible form of cardiomyopathy that is often induced by emotional or physical stress. Sometimes it is called stress cardiomyopathy as well. This syndrome is a well-known cause of acute heart failure, lethal ventricular arrhythmias, and ventricular rupture.

A. Takotsubo syndrome

B. Normal heart

Picture taken from this site

So, people having this syndrome usually feels sudden chest pain (as they are having congestive heart failure) accompanied with some ECG changes reflecting an anterior wall myocardial infarction. We usually can find a bulging of the left ventricular apex with a hypercontractile base of the left ventricle, which is the hallmark of this syndrome. The bulging out of the apex with preserved function of the base made the syndrome named tako tsubo or octopus trap in Japanese.

A. An octopus trap B. A left ventriculography of a takotsubo heart Picture taken from this site

The pathophysiology is not clear yet. However, it is suspected that the mechanism involved cathecolamine excess due to activation of sympathetic tone. Other hypotheses include ischemia from multivessel coronary spasm or a transient atherosclerotic plaque. Most patient survive the acute event with favorable outcome once recovering from the acute stage of the syndrome, the long term prognosis is excellent. So dont go breaking your heart ;)

Picture taken from this site References and further reading: 1. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy - Wikipedia 2. Severe stress in an elderly woman causes a temporary "broken" heart 3.TheBroken Heart Syndrome: Understanding Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
You can read this article at: http://kartikasaraswati-blacktulip.blogspot.com/2011/06/broken-heartsyndrome.html