A Case study of Stress-induced Cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a non-ischemic cardiomyopathy that mimics acute myocardial infarction and is characterized by transient regional systolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. Coronary angiography usually shows no evidence of obstructive coronary artery disease or plaque rupture in Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Here is another patient with a bedside echocardiography on the right side of the screen clearly showing the ballooning of the heart. The regional wall motion abnormality typically extends beyond the territory perfused by a single epicardial coronary artery. The name Takotsubo comes from the Japanese term for octopus trap, which describes the systolic apical ballooning appearance of the left ventricle on imaging. It is also called broken heart syndrome as the mechanism is thought to be related to elevated levels of circulating plasma catecholamines due to stress. Other theories include microvascular dysfunction, spasm of epicardial coronary vessels, and aborted myocardial infarction. Patients who survive the acute episode typically recover systolic LV function within one to four weeks.  In-hospital mortality is approximately 3 to 4 percent.

#TakotsuboCardiomyopathy #BrokenHeartSyndrome #SystolicDysfunction #ApicalBallooning #RegionalWallMotionAbnormality #NonIschemicCardiomyopathy #PlasmaCatecholamines #StressInducedCardiomyopathy #OctopusTrapHeart #MicrovascularDysfunction #EpicardialCoronaryVessels #MyocardialInfarction #TransientLVdysfunction #RecoveryWithinWeeks #LowMortalityRate