Presentation of Tako‐tsubo Cardiomyopathy in Men and Women

Abstract

Background Recent studies have demonstrated that stress‐induced Tako‐tsubo cardiomyopathy is likely to occur in elderly female patients. Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate gender differences in the clinical characteristics of patients with Tako‐tsubo cardiomyopathy. Methods This study consisted of 102 patients with Tako‐tsubo cardiomyopathy. It was characterized by akinesia/hypokinesia of the mid‐to‐distal portion of the left ventricular chamber, with normokinesia/hyperkinesia of the basal portion with an ejection fraction of less than 50% on transthoracic echocardiography. Results There were 13 male and 89 female patients. In 10 male patients (77%), Tako‐tsubo cardiomyopathy occurred during or immediately after receiving medical treatment or examination for an underlying disease. In 9 male patients (69%), objective symptoms such as abnormality of monitoring or low blood pressure, but not subjective symptoms increased the chance of the patient being diagnosed with Tako‐tsubo cardiomyopathy. There was no significant difference in age, body weight, hypertension, or diabetes except for height between male and female patients. The incidence of in‐hospital onset was significantly higher in male patients than in female patients (77% vs 17%, P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in in‐hospital mortality (15% vs 6%, P = not significant). Conclusions These results suggested that physical stress might have more to do with the occurrence of Tako‐tsubo in male than female patients. Copyright