title: Acute electrocardiographic differences between Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to compare ECG findings between anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) in a similar sample of postmenopausal women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2008 and 2011, 27 patients with TC were retrospectively enrolled and matched with 27 STEMI patients with the same age and sex taken from the prospective database of our laboratory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The absence of abnormal Q waves, the ST depression in aVR and the lack of ST elevation in V1 were significantly associated with TC (respectively: 52% vs 18%, p=0.01; 47% vs 11%, p=0.01; 80% vs 41%, p=0.01). The combination of these ECG findings identified TC with a specificity of 95% and a positive predictive value of 85.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ECG on admission may be useful to distinguish TC from anterior STEMI. The combination of three ECG findings identifies patients with TC with high specificity and positive predictive value.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy. Electronic address: mugnai.giacomo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mugnai
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pasqualin
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benfari
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Livio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bertagnolli
authors.affiliation: Medicine and Surgery, University of Siena, Siena Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mugnai
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vassanelli
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marchese
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pesarini
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, University Hospital of Verona, Verona Italy.
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Menegatti
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D054549:Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: Anterior STEMI; ECG; Myocardial infarction; Takotsubo cardiomyopathy