Broken Heart Syndrome

Broken Heart Syndrome

This is a medical condition which is encountered by severe emotional stressful scenario. It can also be triggered by some severe physical illness or post traumatic stress. Some synonyms are stress cardiomyopathy, takotsubo cardiomyopathy and apical ballooning syndrome.

Symptoms

This syndrome can mimic a heart attack. Presents as:

• Pain in chest. However, long standing chest pain could be heart attack.
• Problematic breathing

Causes

Exact cause of this syndrome is unknown but some rush of hormone like adrenaline during stress or temporary constriction of arteries can be possible reasons.Some trigger of this condition are:

• Deceased loved ones
• Divorce
• Surprise party
• Public speaking
• Financial loss
• Domestic abuse
• Fatal medical diagnose
• Winning large amount of money
• Some medications like epinephrine, venlafaxine, duloxetine etc.
• Physical illness like asthma, COVID-19, broken bones etc.

Complications

• Irregular heartbeat
• Heart failure
• Hypotension
• Pulmonary edema
• Rarely this condition can be fatal.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis are done by following:

• Complete history and general physical examination
• ECG
• Echocardiogram
• Blood test
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging
• Coronary angiogram.

Treatment

• There is no particular treatment for this condition as patient recover on it’s own when stress is removed.
• Certain medications can be prescribed to ease the symptoms such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta blockers or diuretics.