Acute impairment of regional myocardial glucose uptake in the apical ballooning (takotsubo) syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Apical ballooning syndrome (ABS) is a poorly understood clinical entity characterized by acute, transient systolic dysfunction of the left ventricular (LV) apex in the absence of epicardial coronary artery disease and commonly associated with acute emotional stress. We report abnormal regional myocardial perfusion and glucose uptake in 4 consecutive ABS patients studied using positron emission tomography with 13N-ammonia and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose within 72 hours of presentation with ABS.


METHODS
All patients were postmenopausal females, 3 of whom had a major recent life stress event. Coronary angiography revealed no or minimal obstructive epicardial coronary artery disease. All patients exhibited reduced glucose uptake in the mid-LV and apical myocardial segments, which was out of proportion to perfusion abnormalities in half of the cases.


CONCLUSIONS
In all 4 patients, affected regions subsequently recovered regional LV systolic function within 6 weeks.
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn 55905, USA.
Kevin A
KA
Bybee
Joseph
J
Murphy
Abhiram
A
Prasad
R Scott
RS
Wright
Amir
A
Lerman
Charanjit S
CS
Rihal
Panithaya
P
Chareonthaitawee
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D005947:Glucose / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D013577:Syndrome; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose