Dibu, George

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) has emerged as a new clinical entity which has not been fully understood. Numerous case reports exist regarding association of TTC with high adrenergic state conditions like Pheochromocytoma. Our aim was to explore the association of common medical conditions with TTC. Methods: This was a cross sectional study using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2007 database.TTC or Broken heart syndrome or Reversible left ventricular dysfunction following sudden emotional stress or Stress induced cardiomyopathy or Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome was defined as patients discharged with any ICD code of 429.83 ( http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/icd9/agendasept05.pdf ). The common medical conditions were identified by appropriate ICD 9 codes Results: We indentified total 6229 discharges with any discharge diagnosis of TTC. The likelihood of common medical conditions with TTC is shown in Table 1. Conclusions: This is the first study to explore the association of common medical conditions associated with TTC on a nationwide basis. We conclude that the patient with hyperlipidemia, smoking, pulmonary hypertension, sub arachnoid hemorrhage, migraine, hyperthyroidism, collagen vascular diseases, anxiety state, and stress have higher odds of developing TTC. Further research needs to be done for better understanding the causes and pathophysiology of TTC which in turn will help risk stratification and define optimal therapy.