Triggers, characteristics, and hospital outcome of patients with Takotsubo syndrome: 10 years experience in a large university hospital centre

A unique clinical feature of Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is the stress trigger factor. Different types of triggers exist, generally divided into emotional and physical stressor. The aim was to create long-term registry of all consecutive patients with TTS across all disciplines in our large university hospital. We enrolled patients on the basis of meeting the diagnostic criteria of the international InterTAK Registry. We aimed to determine type of triggers, clinical characteristics, and outcome of TTS patients during 10 years period. In our prospective, academic, single centre registry, we enrolled 155 consecutive patients with diagnoses of TTS between October 2013 and October 2022. The patients were divided into three groups, those having unknown (n = 32; 20.6%), emotional (n = 42; 27.1%), or physical (n = 81; 52.3%) triggers. Clinical characteristics, cardiac enzyme levels, echocardiographic findings, including ejection fraction, and TTS type did not differ among the groups. Chest pain was less common in the group of patients with a physical trigger. On the other hand, arrhythmogenic disorders such as prolonged QT intervals, cardiac arrest requiring defibrillation, and atrial fibrillation were more common among the TTS patients with unknown triggers compared with the other groups. The highest in-hospital mortality was observed between patients having physical trigger (16% vs. 3.1% in TTS with emotional trigger and 4.8% in TTS with unknown trigger; P = 0.060). Conclusion: More than half of the patients with TTS diagnosed in a large university hospital had a physical trigger as a stress factor. An essential part of caring for these types of patients is the correct identification of TTS in the context of severe other conditions and the absence of typical cardiac symptoms. Patients with physical trigger have a significantly higher risk of acute heart complications. Interdisciplinary cooperation is essential in the treatment of patients with this diagnosis.

Coexistence and outcome of coronary artery disease in Takotsubo syndrome

AIMS

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acute heart failure syndrome, which shares many features with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Although TTS was initially described with angiographically normal coronary arteries, smaller studies recently indicated a potential coexistence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in TTS patients. This study aimed to determine the coexistence, features, and prognostic role of CAD in a large cohort of patients with TTS.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Coronary anatomy and CAD were studied in patients diagnosed with TTS. Inclusion criteria were compliance with the International Takotsubo Diagnostic Criteria for TTS, and availability of original coronary angiographies with ventriculography performed during the acute phase. Exclusion criteria were missing views, poor quality of angiography loops, and angiography without ventriculography. A total of 1016 TTS patients were studied. Of those, 23.0% had obstructive CAD, 41.2% had non-obstructive CAD, and 35.7% had angiographically normal coronary arteries. A total of 47 patients (4.6%) underwent percutaneous coronary intervention, and 3 patients had acute and 8 had chronic coronary artery occlusion concomitant with TTS, respectively. The presence of CAD was associated with increased incidence of shock, ventilation, and death from any cause. After adjusting for confounders, the presence of obstructive CAD was associated with mortality at 30 days. Takotsubo syndrome patients with obstructive CAD were at comparable risk for shock and death and nearly at twice the risk for ventilation compared to an age- and sex-matched ACS cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

Coronary artery disease frequently coexists in TTS patients, presents with the whole spectrum of coronary pathology including acute coronary occlusion, and is associated with adverse outcome.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT01947621.

P814Analysis of patients with tako-tsubo syndrome in terms of the triggering mechanism

Introduction

Tako-tsubo syndrome (TTS) might be caused by two different trigger mechanisms. There is very little data available on patient characteristics and prognosis regarding the trigger mechanisms.

Purpose

Comparison of patients with TTS in terms of different trigger factor – emotional stress vs. psychical stress caused by severe non-cardiac condition.

Method

Data were obtained from the Tako-tsubo registry of patients hospitalized in Cardiocenter University Hospital from 2013 to 2018, in total 86 patients were diagnosed with TTS. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the triggering cause, that we thoroughly examined in each case. In the first group, there were patients with TTS triggered by emotional stress (such as death in the family or anxiety disorders) and in the second group there were patients whose TTS was caused primarily by non-cardiac conditions of various etiology, such as neurological, infectious or postoperative issues.

Results

Out of 86 patients, there were 20 (23,3%) patients excluded, for we weren't able to establish the triggering cause. In 26 (30,2%) patients, the trigger was psychological and 40 (46,5%) patients suffered from non-cardiac condition. According to the collected data there were no significant differences amongst basic demographic facts. Women represented the majority in both groups – 92% vs 95%, age of 70,6±0,8 vs 71,9±0,7 years (p=0,650). There were no significant differences in the hs-TnT 624ng/l ± 49,9 vs 610,2±17,3ng/l (p=0,959). There were significant differences discovered in the average NT-proBNP level – 2691±220,5pg/ml vs 10610±599pg/ml (p<0,05). The patients with non-cardiac conditions developed acute complications more frequently, especially a respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation 20% vs 3,8% (p<0,05). In total, 8 (9,3%) patients with TTS died, of whom all had a physical stress factor of p<0,05.

Conclusion

Physical stress in patients with severe non-cardiac conditions is a more frequent trigger for TTS than emotional stress. Patients with TTS induced by physical stress have a significantly worse prognosis.