‘Broken heart’ syndrome rising in women even before pandemic

Reuters Health - 20/10/2021 - Takotsubo cardiomyopathy - a rare heart-brain disorder also known as broken heart syndrome - is becoming more common among middle-aged and older women and not just in the time of COVID-19, researchers in California report.

Takotsubo syndrome is often triggered by stress or loss and can lead to long-term heart injury and impaired heart function.

"Although the global COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges and stressors for women, our research suggests the increase in Takotsubo diagnoses was rising well before the public-health outbreak," senior author Dr. Susan Cheng, with the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said in a news release.

"This study further validates the vital role the heart-brain connection plays in overall health, especially for women," Dr. Cheng added.

The researchers analyzed sex- and age-based temporal trends in the incidence of Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) in the United States from 2006 to 2017.

Using data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS), they identified more than 135,000 cases of TTS during the study period. They found that the annual incidence of TTS rose steadily in both men and women, but women contributed most cases (88%), especially women aged 50 years and older.

"In particular, we observed a significantly greater increase in TTS incidence among middle-aged (128 cases per million per year) and older (96 cases per million per year) women compared with younger (15 cases per million per year) women (P<0.001)," the researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The increase in TTS incidence among middle-aged men was also significant compared with younger men (20 cases vs. 10 cases per million per year; P<0.001), but not significant for older men (16 cases per million per year; P=0.082).

"There is likely a tipping point, just beyond midlife, where an excess response to stress can impact the heart," Dr. Cheng said in the news release.

"This particular study helps to clarify that women of a certain age range are disproportionately at higher risk for stress cardiomyopathy, and that the risk is increasing," Dr. Christine Albert, chair of the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute, added in the release.

"The upswing could be due to changes in susceptibility, the environment, or both. More work is needed to unravel the underlying disease drivers in Takotsubo condition and other women-dominated conditions," said Dr. Albert.

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3jfJz1Y Journal of the American Heart Association, online October 13, 2021.

By Reuters Staff



Posted on 20 October 20212 November 2021