Transient Left Ventricular Apical Ballooning

BACKGROUND: Transient left ventricular (LV) apical ballooning is characterized by acute onset of chest pain with reversible balloon-like LV motion abnormality, hypercontractile basal segments, ST segment elevation or T-wave inversion in anterior chest leads and mild cardiac enzyme rise in the absence of significant coronary disease. METHODS: We describe 5 patients (4 females) with anteroapical ballooning who were hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction and showed ST segment elevation in anterior chest leads. RESULTS: Echocardiogram demonstrated apical ballooning with normal or hypercontractile contraction of the basal segments. Four patients had severe mitral incompetence and one had mild incompetence. All patients had also systolic anterior motion and 4 had a significant LV outflow (LVOT) gradient. All patients underwent cardiac catheterization soon after admission showing non-significant narrowing of the coronary arteries. At discharge 4 patients had normal LV function and 1 was mildly impaired. CONCLUSIONS: LV apical ballooning is relatively rare. It should be suspected in older patients, mainly women, with severe mitral incompetence and LVOT gradient.