The 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...

The broken heart syndrome.

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": understanding Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

"Broken heart syndrome," or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is a spontaneously reversible form of cardio-myopathy that is often induced by emotional or physical stress. Signs and symptoms include chest pain, dyspnea, electrocardiographic changes, and elevated levels of cardiac biomarkers. Patients often have signs and symptoms of fluid overload and can have acute pulmonary edema. Most patients are po...