Physical Exercise or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is an increasingly recognized acute heart failure syndrome precipitated by intense emotional stress. Although there is an apparent rapid and spontaneous recovery of left ventricular ejection fraction, the long-term clinical and functional consequences of takotsubo cardiomyopathy are ill-defined. In an observational case-control study, we recruited 37 patients with prior (>12-month) takotsubo cardiomyopathy, and 37 age-, sex-, and comorbidity-matched control subjects. Patients completed the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. All participants underwent detailed clinical phenotypic characterization, including serum biomarker analysis, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, echocardiography, and cardiac magnetic resonance including cardiac 31P-spectroscopy. Participants were predominantly middle-age (64±11 years) women (97%). Although takotsubo cardiomyopathy occurred 20 (range 13-39) months before the study, the majority (88%) of patients had persisting symptoms compatible with heart failure (median of 13 [range 0-76] in the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire) and cardiac limitation on exercise testing (reduced peak oxygen consumption, 24±1.3 versus 31±1.3 mL/kg/min, P<0.001; increased VE/Vco2 slope, 31±1 versus 26±1, P=0.002). Despite normal left ventricular ejection fraction and serum biomarkers, patients with prior takotsubo cardiomyopathy had impaired cardiac deformation indices (reduced apical circumferential strain, -16±1.0 versus -23±1.5%, P<0.001; global longitudinal strain, -17±1 versus -20±1%, P=0.006), increased native T1 mapping values (1264±10 versus 1184±10 ms, P<0.001), and impaired cardiac energetic status (phosphocreatine/γ-adenosine triphosphate ratio, 1.3±0.1 versus 1.9±0.1, P<0.001). In contrast to previous perceptions, takotsubo cardiomyopathy has long-lasting clinical consequences, including demonstrable symptomatic and functional impairment associated with persistent subclinical cardiac dysfunction. Taken together our findings demonstrate that after takotsubo cardiomyopathy, patients develop a persistent, long-term heart failure phenotype. URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02989454.

Case presentation: A 60-year-old woman presented to the emergency department 2 hours after the onset of severe retrosternal chest pain that started soon after she was told that her son had died in a car accident. A 12-lead ECG demonstrated ST-elevation in the precordial leads (Figure 1), and the plasma troponin T level was elevated at 0.07 ng/mL. A diagnosis of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction was made, and the patient was admitted for emergency coronary angiography, which revealed normal coronary arteries. The left ventriculogram showed severe systolic dysfunction involving the mid and apical segments (Data Supplement Movie I). Figure 1. Twelve-lead ECG demonstrating ST-segment elevation in precordial leads. Physicians have long been aware of the possible association between stress and cardiovascular events. Awareness has increased of a distinct cardiac syndrome that was originally described in the Japanese population and was called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, named after the octopus-trapping pot with a round bottom and narrow neck that resembles the left ventriculogram during systole in these patients.1,2 Other names used to describe the condition include apical ballooning syndrome (ABS), broken heart syndrome, and stress or ampulla cardiomyopathy. The precise incidence of ABS is unknown, but it may account for 1% to 2% of patients who present with an acute myocardial infarction.3 The majority of patients have a clinical presentation that is indistinguishable from an acute coronary syndrome. Most present with chest pain at rest, although some patients have dyspnea alone as their initial presenting symptom. Rarely, patients present with syncope or an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.4 ABS appears to occur almost exclusively in postmenopausal women; however, a few cases have been reported in younger women and males.4 The patients are usually hemodynamically stable, but clinical findings of mild-to-moderate congestive heart failure …

BackgroundWe sought to determine (1) long‐term outcomes in patients presenting with documented Takotsubo syndrome (TS), (2) whether left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV‐GLS) provides incremental prognostic value, and (3) prognostic cutoffs of LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and LV‐GLS during an acute TS episode.Methods and ResultsWe studied 650 patients with TS (aged 66±14 years, 88% women) who were diagnosed clinically and angiographically between 2006 and 2018. Baseline LVEF and LV‐GLS (using velocity vector imaging) were recorded. The primary end point was all‐cause mortality. TS triggers were unknown (34%), emotional (16%), physical (41%), and neurologic (10%). Mean LVEF and LV‐GLS were 36±10% and −11.6±0.4%; in addition, 94% patients had LVEF <52%, and 80% had apical ballooning. No patient had obstructive coronary artery disease. At a median of 2.2 years (interquartile range, 0.7–4.4), 175 (27%) had died (9% in‐hospital deaths). Multivariate Cox survival analysis revealed that higher age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.35), male sex (HR, 1.75), lower baseline LVEF (HR, 1.02), worse LV‐GLS (HR, 1.04), neurologic trigger (HR, 2.66), and physical trigger (HR, 2.64) were associated with mortality, whereas aspirin (HR, 0.70) and β‐blockers (HR, 0.73) improved survival (all P<0.049). The addition of LVEF and LV‐GLS to clinical markers (age, sex, cardiogenic shock at presentation, and peak troponin I) significantly increased log‐likelihood ratios: clinical (−521.48), clinical plus LVEF (−511.32, P<0.001), and clinical plus LVEF and LV‐GLS (−500.68, P<0.001). On penalized spline analysis, LVEF of 38% and LV‐GLS of −10% were cutoffs below which survival was significantly worse.ConclusionsPatients with TS with a neurologic or physical trigger had significantly worse survival than those without such a trigger, with baseline LVEF and LV‐GLS providing incremental prognostic value.

Change in Strain Echocardiography Predicts Mortality in Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy

Cardiac Thrombi in Stress (Tako-Tsubo) Cardiomyopathy: More Than an Apical Issue?

This study assessed the applicability and prognostic value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) left ventricular deformation analysis in Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). CMR-feature tracking was performed blinded in a core laboratory to determine circumferential (CS), radial (RS) and longitudinal strain (LS) in 141 TTS patients participating in this cohort study. A subgroup of consecutive TTS patients (n = 20) was compared with age- and sex-matched controls with anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-STEMI as well as healthy subjects. Median global CS, RS and LS were -19%, 19% and -12%, respectively. Apical ballooning was associated with significantly lower global CS (p < 0.01) and LS (p < 0.01) compared with midventricular and basal ballooning. Global RS was lowest in patients with basal ballooning (p < 0.01). Segmental analysis resulted in a reliable discrimination of different ballooning patterns using CS and LS. Strain values were significantly lower in TTS compared with non-STEMI patients and healthy subjects, whereas STEMI patients showed similar values. While global CS and RS were not associated with long-term mortality, global LS (cutoff -14.75%) was identified as a potential parameter for long-term risk stratification (mortality rate 17.9% versus 2.5%; p = 0.02). The transient contraction abnormalities in TTS can be quantitatively assessed with CMR-feature tracking. GLS is a potential determinant of outcome in TTS, which, however, requires further validation. • Cardiovascular magnetic resonance myocardial feature tracking enables accurate assessment of regional and global left ventricular dysfunction in Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). • Global strain in TTS is similar to patients with anterior STEMI and lower compared with non-STEMI and healthy subjects. • Global longitudinal strain is a potential tool for risk prediction in TTS patients.

Data on left ventricular (LV) strain profiles in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) in comparison with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) are limited. We sought to investigate regional and global LV longitudinal strain in a cohort of patients with known TC using two-dimensional strain imaging (2DS) in comparison with patients with acute cardiomyopathy (ACM) due to severe obstructive left anterior descending arterial disease or triple-vessel disease and healthy controls. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed in 34 patients with established TC, 24 patients with ACM, and 30 healthy subjects. We measured the segmental longitudinal strain in apical views by the use of EchoInsight Epsilon software. Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS) was calculated by averaging segmental wall strains. The TC and ACM groups were comparable for age and demographic characteristics. Systolic and diastolic function were significantly impaired in both groups compared to controls. LV global and segmental systolic strain was also significantly attenuated in patients with TC and ACM compared to controls (P < 0.001). Moreover, LV basal segmental longitudinal strain was higher in the patients with TC compared to ACM (P = 0.02). Global and apical segmental strain appear to be higher in patients with mid-ventricular variant compared to those with apical variant of TC with apical strain cutoff value of -7.85%, offering the best discriminatory value for differentiating these two patterns (P = 0.001). The results of this hypothesis-generating study indicate that longitudinal LV strain parameters are similarly impaired in patients with TC and ACM due to severe obstructive left anterior descending arterial disease or triple-vessel disease. Assessment of two-dimensional LV strain parameters could help differentiate between different TC patterns.

Metoprolol Improves Left Ventricular Longitudinal Strain at Rest and during Exercise in Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Determinants of prolonged impairment of global longitudinal strain post Takotsubo cardiomyopathy

Steep ramp test protocol for preoperative risk assessment and short-term high-intensity interval training to evaluate, improve, and monitor cardiorespiratory fitness in surgical oncology.

Elite athletes show structural cardiac changes as an adaptation to exercise. Studies examining strain in athletes have largely analyzed images at rest only. There is little data available regarding the change in strain with exercise. Our objectives were: to investigate the feasibility of strain analysis in athletes at peak exercise, to determine the normal range of left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) within this population postexercise, to describe how LV GLS changes with exercise, and to determine whether any clinical characteristics correlate with the change in GLS that occurs with exercise. We conducted a cross-sectional study on elite athletes who participated in the 2016-2018 National Basketball Association Draft Combines. Echocardiograms were obtained at rest and after completing a treadmill stress test to maximal exertion or completion of Bruce protocol. Primary outcomes included GLS obtained at rest and peak exercise. Secondary outcome was the change in GLS between rest and exercise. Univariate relationships between various clinical characteristics and our secondary outcome were analyzed. Our final cohort (n=111) was all male and 92/111 (82.9%) were African American. Mean GLS magnitude increased in response to exercise (-17.6±1.8 vs -19.2±2.6, P<.0001). Lower resting heart rates (r=.22, P=.02) and lower heart rates at peak exercise (r=.21, P=.03) correlated with the increase in LV GLS from exercise. Strain imaging is technically feasible to obtain among elite basketball athletes at peak exercise. Normative strain response to exercise from this study may help identify abnormal responses to exercise in athletes.

In recent years, the prognostic utility of global longitudinal strain (GLS) has evolved significantly in the evaluation and management of a wide array of cardiac conditions. Various studies have described the use of GLS in the evaluation of various cardiac pathologies, including heart failure, aortic stenosis, and acute myocardial infarction. Evaluation utilizing speckle-tracking echocardiography (Echo) has been shown to be sensitive in the assessment of global and regional myocardial function. In that context, GLS can be used as a surrogate marker of myocardial function, especially in cases of acute myocardial infarction. Although GLS has been shown as a sensitive marker for myocardial ischemia, it has been a significantly underutilized modality in the evaluation of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC); an acute myocardial stress reaction, which can mimic acute coronary syndrome on presentation. With this case report, we present a case of left ventricular TC with abnormal longitudinal strain affecting the entirety of the apex and all three major coronary artery distribution territories. Our case report illustrates how GLS can be a sensitive marker for myocardial dysfunction in cases of TC. The extent of abnormality and distribution of strain has a pathognomonic ‘evil eye’ appearance, which was described in previous studies and is consistent with TC. GLS may help identify patients with TC prior to proceeding with left heart catheterization and would be significantly beneficial in TC and may have further implications on the overall prognosis and management of TC in the future.

Alterations in Cardiac Deformation, Timing of Contraction and Relaxation, and Early Myocardial Fibrosis Accompany the Apparent Recovery of Acute Stress-Induced (Takotsubo) Cardiomyopathy: An End to the Concept of Transience

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Tako-Tsubo Syndrome (TTS) consists in transient left ventricular dysfunction resembling in its typical form acute anterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Early non-invasive differential diagnosis, crucial for therapeutic purposes, appears difficult according to available data. Purpose to systematically analyze LV function and ECG changes in patients with acute anterior STEMI and TTS, to identify parameters possibly useful for differential diagnosis. Methods this is a retrospective cohort study, with 2 groups: patients with anterior STEMI and extensive apical involvement at echocardiography (n = 22); patients with TTS (n = 22) and ECG changes diagnostic for anterior STEMI at presentation (n = 22). They underwent a comprehensive clinical and echocardiographic evaluation in acute phase, including 2D speckle tracking longitudinal strain. We created new indexes based on wall motion impairment of inferior and inferior-lateral walls: the Inferior apex ratio (IAR) and inferior-lateral apex ratio (ILAR) (see picture). Results TTS and STEMI patients were similar for age (74.7 ± 9.1 vs 73.4 ± 14.1 y), sex, and main biochemical data except for higher peak troponin I in STEMI (1323 ± 622 vs 377 ± 220 ng/L, p = 0.01). ST segment elevation in V1 (V1e) was significantly less common in TTS (p &amp;lt; 0.001) while increased ratio of ST segment elevation in V4-V6 to V1-V3 (∑Ste V4-V6/∑Ste V1-V3≥1) was more common in TTS (p &amp;lt; 0.001). Among ECG parameters, absence of V1e had the best sensitivity (86%) and specificity (86%) in predicting TTS. LVEF values were similar (means: 45% in both groups) with EDVI greater in TTS (55.5 ±12.3 vs 46.6 ± 11.0 ml/m2, p = 0.02). WMSI was greater in TTS patients (2.2 ± 0.1 vs 1.9 ± 0.1, p &amp;lt; 0.0001), mainly for greater scores of mid segments. Global longitudinal strain was impaired in TTS (-8.1 ± 2.5 %) and in anterior STEMI (-7.9 ± 2.7, p = 0.8). By analyzing the single segments, strain was significantly more compromised in TTS in mid inferior (MI) (-4.3 ± 6.4 vs -9.9 ± 5.5 % in STEMI, p = 0.003) and mid inferior-lateral (MIL) segments (-5.4 ± 5.4 vs -9.6 ± 4.9 %, p = 0.009). Mean IAR was 0.7 ± 0.3 in TTS vs 1.8 ± 0.6 in STEMI, p &amp;lt; 0.0001; mean ILAR was 0.7 ± 0.1 in TTS vs 2.0 ± 0.9 in STEMI, p &amp;lt; 0.0001. ILAR was &amp;lt; I in all TTS patients, and &amp;gt; 1 in all STEMI cases. IAR &amp;lt; 1 showed 90% sensitivity and 95% specificity in predicting TTS. By multivariate linear regression analysis, strain values of MI and MIL segments were significantly associated with TTS (Beta: -0.98 and -0.97 respectively, p &amp;lt; 0.0001), independently from age, sex, and EDVI. IAR and ILAR values were significantly associated with TTS (Beta: -0.81 and -0.76 respectively, p &amp;lt; 0.0001) independently from the same co-variates as above. Conclusions evidence of impaired contractility extending beyond apex to mid inferior and inferior-lateral walls, assed by longitudinal strain or by IAR and ILAR, can help to discriminate TTS from extensive anterior STEMI, more accurately than ECG parameters. Abstract Figure. Examples of ILAR index Abstract Figure. IAR and ILAR distributions

Impact of the Preoperative Risk and the Type of Surgery on Exercise Capacity and Training After Valvular Surgery