Mending a broken heart: Study offers closer look at 'broken heart syndrome'

"Broken heart syndrome" is still a mystery to many in the medical community, but new data from researchers at The Miriam Hospital may shed some light on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of this relatively rare, life-threatening condition.

Researchers created a registry of 70 patients with the syndrome, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, who were diagnosed between July 2004 and April 2008. Two-thirds of the patients – almost all post-menopausal women – had experienced a very stressful physical or emotional event just before arriving at the hospital with heart attack-like symptoms. Although 20 percent were critically ill and required emergency treatment to keep them alive, all patients survived the first 48 hours and experienced a full and complete recovery,

The report is published in the April 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

"It can be difficult for cardiologists and emergency room physicians to diagnose and manage patients with broken heart syndrome.

However, this data will helps us better understand the disease process and could play a major role in developing and tailoring more effective short and long-term treatment strategies," says lead author Richard Regnante, MD, an interventional cardiology fellow at The Miriam Hospital and a teaching fellow in medicine (cardiology) at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Broken heart syndrome was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s. Symptoms typically mimic a heart attack and tend to follow exposure to an intense physical or emotional event. Experts believe these symptoms may be brought on by the heart's reaction to a surge of stress hormones, like adrenaline, causing a part of the heart to temporarily weaken or become stunned (cardiomyopathy), although the exact mechanism is unknown. However, it appears that broken heart syndrome is temporary and completely reversible.

All patients in the Rhode Island Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy Registry arrived at the hospital with heart attack-like symptoms, including chest pain and shortness of breath. Because of those similarities, patients underwent emergency cardiac catheterization. Approximately 67 percent of patients had been exposed to some sort of physical or emotional distress – such as bad news about a family member, a domestic argument, severe physical illness or a car accident – just before the onset of symptoms. All were eventually diagnosed with broken heart syndrome during their hospital stay.

Researchers identified a wide spectrum of disease severity among patients in the registry. Six patients presented with cardiogenic shock and three patients experienced sustained ventricular arrhythmias, requiring emergency defibrillation or cardioversion. Overall, the majority of those in the registry were prescribed aspirin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and statins during their hospitalization, consistent with treatment protocol for patients with acute coronary syndrome. Similarly, most patients left the hospital on a cardiac regimen very similar to that prescribed for heart attack patients.