Taku-Tsubo Syndrome

Tako-Tsubo syndrome or stress cardiomyopathy is a rare dreadful illness that appears under circumstances of exceptional and extreme stress, some times associated with anger. In the human body, stress cardiomyopathy (or broken heart syndrome) is a condition in which heart muscles are temporarily weakened. Stress cardiomyopathy could easily be confused with a heart attack, but stress cardiomyopathy is much less serious. Emotional stress may trigger stress cardiomyopathy. Tako-tsubo means octopus trap in the Japanese language. It does not affect the apex of the heart always and is related to a midventricular wall motion abnormality. It is also called transient left ventricular apical ballooning. The function of the distal and apical segments of the LV are depressed, and there is compensatory hyperkinesis of the basal walls, producing ballooning of the apex with systole. Stress-induced cardiomyopathy is more common in women than in men.