 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- A team of U.S. researchers has created the largest national registry of patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or "broken heart syndrome."
Researchers at Brown University in Providence, R.I., say the registry will help doctors more easily recognize and treat this rare, life-threatening condition.
Text Continues Below
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is commonly called broken heart syndrome, because it is often preceded by some form of emotional or physical distress. The actual cause of the condition, which almost always strikes women, is unknown.
Patients are usually critically ill during the first 48 hours, and it often appears that they're having a heart attack. However, there is no sign of coronary artery blockage.
"These patients can be difficult to manage for emergency physicians and cardiologists alike. They may be in cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, or severe heart failure. They may require advanced life support with airway management and mediations to support blood pressure," cardiology fellow Dr. Richard Regnante said in a prepared statement.
The registry developed by Regnante and his colleagues currently includes 40 patients diagnosed with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy at two major Rhode Island hospitals over a span of 2 1/2 years. Of those patients, 95 percent were women, and 60 percent experienced a stressful event -- ranging from armed robbery to a major argument, tooth extraction, or preparation for colonoscopy -- before they went to a hospital emergency room for treatment of broken heart syndrome.
The most common symptom among the patients was chest pain (70 percent), followed by shortness of breath (33 percent). All patients showed electrocardiographic (ECG) changes suggestive of an acute coronary syndrome, a term that encompasses both heart attack and unstable angina.
Page: 1 | 2 | Next >>
-- Robert Preidt
|
.gif)
