• Question: What is “stress cardiomyopathy?

    Asked by The Milky Bar Kid MINUS to Andy on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Andrew Scott

      Andrew Scott answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Stress cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome is usually found in people who have had a severe trauma or shock. It’s often called broken heart syndrome. Your left ventricle (the main pumping chamber that pushes the oxygenated blood around the rest of your body) stops pumping properly. It usually goes away over time.

      The causes don’t seem to be known very well, but people who work in that area believe that it might be caused by all the hormones that are released when you get the shock.

      There’s a nice description of it on the BHF website:
      https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/conditions/cardiomyopathy/takotsubo-cardiomyopathy.aspx

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