How Common Is 'Broken Heart Syndrome'?
Jul-22-2011

Stress can stun heart muscle, causing symptoms that mimic a heart attack.
This disorder, which is called "stress cardiomyopathy" or "broken heart syndrome," is most common in older women, typically striking after a major physical strain like surgery or mental hardship like the death of a loved one.
Now a new study, one of the largest of its kind, confirms that stress cardiomyopathy can also affect men and premenopausal women.
And in as many as one-third of cases, a triggering event cannot be pinpointed, suggesting that causes of stress cardiomyopathy may sometimes be too subtle to recognize.
Experts who were not involved in the research praised the study for its size and for its use of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to carefully document the physical features of the poorly understood syndrome.
"It was nice that they were able to get a big cohort of patients from different centers and kind of do things all the same way," says Mazen Hanna, MD, a cardiologist who is director of the heart failure intensive care unit at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. "Kudos to them for pulling that off."
Others agree.
"I think it's the best large-scale study looking at the MRI features of this condition," says Ilan S. Wittstein, MD, a cardiologist and assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,in Baltimore.
"This definitely shows, using MRI, that the pathophysiology of this condition is very different," Wittstein tells WebMD. "It clearly separates this from other kinds of heart muscle disorders."

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