What is broken heart syndrome?

What is broken heart syndrome?

When you hear a shocking news like the death of a near one, the stress hormones pour out into your bloodstream. This causes a rapid increase in the heart rate and blood pressure. The main hormone is adrenaline, released from the adrenal gland in response to stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. The rapid surge of adrenaline levels is thought to cause damage to the heart muscle producing ECG changes mimicking a heart attack. Many of them go into heart failure and get admitted into intensive care units. Unlike at classical heart attack which is due to blockage of blood vessels supplying the heart, there is no block in the arteries in broken heart syndrome.

Is broken heart syndrome dangerous?

Most people recover from the heart failure with medical treatment. Sometimes a coronary angiogram is done to exclude blocks in arteries as the ECG changes mimic a heart attack. Moreover, this occurs often in elderly females, who are otherwise prone for heart attack. Hence exclusion of blocks is important in diagnosis and treatment. Treatment is supportive treatment for heart failure with bed rest and medications. Initial few days may be in the intensive care unit to look for cardiac arrhythmias which can occur rarely. If they do occur, it can be fatal.

What are the medical terms for broken heart syndrome?

The medical terms for this condition are stress cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease caused by extreme stress), apical ballooning cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease causing ballooning of the apex of the left ventricle), and Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy. Tako-tsubo is a Japanese octopus trap. The ballooning of the heart resembles the octopus trap in angiographic pictures of the left ventricle (lower chamber of the heart).

What causes it?

Everyday stresses do not cause broken heart syndrome. The sudden rise of adrenaline when you hear a shocking news is actually meant to gear up your system to cope up with the extreme stress. But sometimes it becomes counterproductive. It can cause temporary damage to the heart of some individuals.Though the exact reason unknown, it is thought to be due the decrease in blood supply to the heart muscle cells as a result of transient narrowing of the small blood vessel branches. The weakened heart muscle bulges or balloons out at the apex and hence the name apical ballooning cardiomyopathy. The weakness of the heart muscle is usually temporary and recovers within days or weeks.