Another Broken Heart

Broken heart: Broken mind.

The increased frequency of sudden cardiac death after earthquakes and bombings has long proposed that emotional distress plays a role in acute coronary syndromes and arrhythmias. Since the 1960s, several controlled, prospective, epidemiological studies have reported emotional distress as a major risk factor for the onset and worsening of coronary heart disease (CHD) [1]. The Interheart study, a...

Another broken heart: loss of lamina-associated polypeptide 2alpha causes systolic dysfunction.

More than one-third of cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are caused by inherited mutations, with 5% to 10% of these mutations being linked to the LMNA gene encoding the nuclear envelope proteins lamin A and C.1–3 Whereas geneticists have mostly looked for mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric and cytoskeletal proteins in the past, genes for nuclear envelope associated proteins are proving ...

Broken Heart Syndrome

A broken heart.

A 70-year-old woman with no past cardiac history was admitted for near collapse and chest discomfort that occurred when she was informed that her husband of 45 years had died in our hospital of congestive heart failure and refractory ventricular arrhythmias. The ECG revealed minor anterior ST-segment elevations and inferolateral ST-segment depressions, which resolved after intravenous nitroglyc...

The broken heart syndrome.