On the quest of unraveling the pathophysiology of Takotsubo syndrome

Abstract

I wrote these lines, having read, and reviewed many of the 89 references, of the splendid review of Redfors et al., on the pathophysiology of Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), published in the October 25, 2014 issue of the Journal [1]. It is a certainty that the pathophysiology of TTS is still elusive, and that only by perpetually speculating, and comparing such speculations with conclusions deriving from animal studies and clinical observations, we will get closer to the solution of this puzzle. I would appreciate the thoughts of the authors on the following 5 matters: 1) It is unlikely that great progress will be made through the advances in the clinical arena, and that leaps in our progress will be realized only via appropriately designed animal studies, employing for example the rat model which the authors have implemented so competently and prodigiously [1,2].