Elsevier

Heart & Lung

Volume 42, Issue 1, January–February 2013, Pages 40-47
Heart & Lung

Care of People who have Heart Failure
Chronobiological variation in the occurrence of Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy: Experiences of two tertiary cardiovascular centers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2012.09.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

There have been few data to review and analyze the temporal preference of the onset of Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC). Aim of this study was to investigate chronobiological variations in the occurrence of TTC and changes of these variations according to age and gender.

Methods

One hundred and thirty-seven patients were enrolled from our TTC registry database from January 2004 to December 2010 in Korea.

Results

The median age of the entire study population was 59 years (inter-quartile range 53–72 years). The majority of patients were women (n = 101, 74%). The onset of TTC differed as a function of season (P = .001), with the peak in July and the nadir in March. Events were most frequent in summer (n = 53%, 38.7%) and least so in winter (n = 26, 19%, chi-square = 13.92, P = .003). TTC was most frequent in the morning (n = 56, 40.9%) and least so at night (n = 22, 16.1%, chi-square = 21.98, P = .001). Also, TTC was most frequent on Monday (n = 34, 24.8%) and least so on Saturday (n = 7, 5.1%, chi-square = 30.44, P = .001). Stressor pattern, age and gender do not influence these increases of occurrence in summer, on Monday, and in the morning of TTC.

Conclusions

TTC seems to exhibit a temporal variation of occurrence with preferred peaks during morning, Monday, and summer. Stressor pattern, age and gender do not influence these temporal patterns of the occurrence of TTC. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential link between chronobiological variations of TTC onset and underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms.

Introduction

Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC), also known as transient left ventricular (LV) ballooning syndrome, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy is characterized by transient LV dysfunction in the absence of significant angiographic coronary stenoses, typically triggered by preceding emotional or physical stress.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 A growing body of evidence indicates that the onset of several cardiovascular events, such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, and aortic dissection, is not randomly distributed over time, but exhibits temporal patterns along the day (circadian), month or season (circannual), and day of the week (weekly or circaseptan).6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Among these cardiovascular events, AMI has known to show well-defined temporal patterns in their occurrence throughout the year and the day, which is characterized by peaks in winter and troughs in summer.6 TTC is prevalent in elderly women presenting with a history of emotional or physical stress that mimics the clinical scenario of AMI.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 However, there have been few data to review and analyze the temporal preference of the onset of TTC in detail.12, 13, 14, 15, 16 In this study, we investigated chronobiological variations in the occurrence of TTC and changes of these variations according to stressor pattern, age and gender.

Section snippets

Study subjects

We approached 137 consecutive patients enrolled from the TTC registry database at the Konkuk University Medical Center and Samsung Changwon Hospital from January 2004 to December 2010. From 6078 consecutive patients with diagnosis of an acute coronary syndrome, including ST- and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction who had an urgent coronary angiography (CAG), 137 (2%) patients were diagnosed with TTC. The criteria for inclusion were as follows: (1) transient akinesia/dyskinesia beyond a

Clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings in patients with TTC

The clinical characteristics and initial presentations of patients with TTC are presented in Table 1. The median age of the entire study population was 59 years (IQR: 53–72 years). The majority of patients were women (n = 101, 74%). The apical form of TTC was markedly prevalent (n = 106, 77%). Presenting symptoms were chest pain (n = 71, 52%), dyspnea (n = 77, 56%), palpitation (n = 11, 8%), and nausea/vomiting (n = 14, 10%). Forty-eight (35%) patients presented with cardiogenic shock and 57

Discussion

The main findings of this study were as follows: First, TTC seems to exhibit a temporal variation of occurrence with preferred peaks during morning, Monday, and summer. Second, stressor pattern, age and gender do not influence these chronobiological patterns of the occurrence of TTC.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the largest studies investigating the chronobiological variations of TTC onset and analyzing changes of these variations according to stressor pattern, age and gender.

Conclusions

TTC seems to exhibit a temporal variation of occurrence with preferred peaks during morning, Monday, and summer. Also, stressor patterns, age and gender do not influence these temporal patterns of occurrence of TTC. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential link between chronobiological variations of TTC onset and underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms.

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