The Clinically Broken Heart: Stress-Induced Cardiomyopathy

[Heart Matters, January 01, 0001] Takotsubo, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy (also known as 'broken heart syndrome'), was first recognized in Japan in the 1990s. Acute emotional or physical stress trigger the condition, which mimics the symptoms of a myocardial infarction (or MI). How can physicians differentiate between stress-induced cardiomyopathy and a more conventional MI, and how is stress-induced cardiomyopathy treated? What characteristics might make a patient more susceptible to developing this condition? Dr. Scott Sharkey, senior consulting cardiologist at Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and director of the Takotsubo cardiomyopathy research program at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in Minnesota, shares some of the key diagnostic tests for differentiating between stress-induced cardiomyopathy and conventional MI. reachmd.com.