What is the role of echocardiography in the diagnostic assessment and understanding of clinical prognostic implications in patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy?
Echocardiography is a crucial, widely available tool for the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) is newly-described secondary cardiomyopathy characterized by transient left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, which is increasingly recognized in the field of cardiology. TTC occurs in approximately 2% of the patients with acute coronary syndrome. Its onset is rare; however, its specific features play a crucial role in diagnosing the chest pain in clinical practice. TTC has generally favorable outcome with rapid recovery of LV function; however, an increasing evidence suggests that it should be regarded as a more serious acute cardiac disorder with a variety of complications. Owing to its widespread availability, even in emergency settings, transthoracic echocardiography plays a key role in the diagnostic assessment of TTC and contributes to an increased number of disease detection and incidence reports in contemporary clinical practice. This review focuses on the role of echocardiography in understanding the clinical prognostic implications in patients with TTC.
Izumo et al. (2018) studied this question.