Suffering from a Broken Heart

Broken Heart Syndrome is an uncommon condition of the heart that can mimic a heart attack.
CAN you die from a broken heart? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it is very unlikely. Is it common? No, but the actual frequency of this condition probably lies somewhere between rare and uncommon.

This story begins rather interestingly with a reported case in Japan by Y. J. Akashi of a 70-year-old woman who continued to have chest pain two hours after a particularly emotional quarrel with her neighbours and was subsequently admitted to a hospital.

She presented with symptoms not unlike a heart attack complicated by heart failure. At the emergency room, she was breathless and very anxious. Her heart was going like a freight train. Like most people at this age, she had hypertension and high cholesterol. However, this was the first time she had such chest pains. She did not have any family history of heart disease either, and no one in the family had died suddenly from a heart attack. Her annual medical checkup was normal (she had the usual electrocardiogram).

This is what happened when she was admitted. Her ECG showed that she had some changes suggestive of lack of oxygen to the heart muscle and an echocardiogram (showing the movement of the heart on television) showed that its contraction was weaker in some areas.

At this point, the most obvious diagnosis would be an early heart attack. She quickly underwent a coronary angiogram and surprisingly, had essentially normal coronary vessels. However, the left heart wall was not contracting as well as it should.

During her hospital stay, the patient continued to have chest pain and one day suddenly lost consciousness. Her blood pressure dropped to unrecordable levels and an echocardiogram showed evidence of a ruptured wall of the heart.