584 AN UNUSUAL CASE OF A STRESSED HEART

Abstract

Abstract A 53-year-old woman was admitted to our emergency department complaining severe stabbing and oppressive retrosternal pain radiating posteriorly to left scapulae and left arm The onset was followed by general malaise, nausea, vomiting which she attributed to a period of intense emotional stress. She denied common cardiovascular risk factors, but in 2019 had a suspected acute coronary syndrome with subsequent finding of normal coronary artery at angiography in another institute. Her past medical history included severe asthma on multiple drug therapy with regular follow-up. Physical exam was normal. Electrocardiogram (ECG) showed subtle diphasic-negative T wave in anterior leads with mild ST depression in V4-V5, with patient still symptomatic. Lab examinations showed significantly increased troponins levels (hsTnI 664 ng/L, reference < 34 ng/L) with other lab values within normal range. A transthoracic echocardiogram at the bedside revealed mildly reduced systolic function with hypo-akinesis of the mid-apical anteroseptal and anterior left ventricular myocardial wall. Therefore, acute coronary syndrome was suspected and heparin and aspirin at a loading dose were administered. Still symptomatic, the patient was admitted in the ICU. In the same day a left heart catheterization revealed normal aspect of epicardial coronary arteries and ventriculography showed preserved basal and apical myocardial wall motion but hypo-akinesis of mid-cavitary walls, suggesting a possible mid-ventricular variant of Takotsubo syndrome (Figure 1). The patient was still symptomatic for stabbing chest pain after coronarography. To rule out the suspicion of acute aortic syndrome and pulmonary embolism, she also underwent a contrast-enhanced chest CT scan, that was fortunately normal. During her hospital stay, the patient had no arrhythmic and hemodynamic complications. Peak troponin level was 5027 ng/L. At serial ECGs, she developed diffuse deep T-wave inversion and a mild prolonged QT interval. Echocardiogram was repeated after 4 days showing complete normalization of left ventricular wall motion and restored ejection fraction also. From the traditional “apical ballooning” Takotsubo Syndrome with apical akinesia and basal hypercontractility, different variants have been described. The mid-ventricular variant, seen in our patient was found in only 14.6% of the cases in the International Takotsubo Registry, followed by basal “reverse” and focal variants (2.2% and 1.5%, respectively).