Presentation of Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy in men and women.
BACKGROUND
Recent studies have demonstrated that stress-induced Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy is likely to occur in elderly female patients.


OBJECTIVE
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.
Kurisu
Satoshi
S
Department of Cardiology, Hiroshima City Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan. skurisu@nifty.com
Inoue
Ichiro
I
Kawagoe
Takuji
T
Ishihara
Masaharu
M
Shimatani
Yuji
Y
Nakama
Yasuharu
Y
Kagawa
Eisuke
E
Dai
Kazuoki
K
Ikenaga
Hiroki
H
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D013318:Stroke Volume; D054549:Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left