A 70 year old woman with chest pain after a stressful event

COVID‑19 related stress exacerbates common physical and mental pathologies and affects treatment (Review)

“…The brain-heart interaction has been long acknowledged as a significant factor for various cardiovascular diseases (15). Overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system due to physical or emotional stressors has been hypothesized as the underlying cause of myocardial infarction, hypertension, arrythmias and stress induced/Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (15)(16)(17).…”

Stress induced (Takotsubo) cardiomyopathy triggered by the COVID‑19 pandemic

“…The in-hospital and one-year mortality of TC has been reported 1-5 and 5.6%, respectively, with a recurrence rate of ≤5% ( 1 , 2 ). Left ventricular systolic function usually recovers within four weeks ( 1 ). TC is characterized by a low-grade chronic inflammatory state consisting of myocardial macrophage inflammatory infiltrates, substantial increase in the pro-inflammatory, classical monocyte subset CD14 ++ CD16 - , and an increase in the systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8 and chemocine CXCL1( 3 ).…”

“…TC represents an acute heart failure syndrome with substantial morbidity and mortality (2). The in-hospital and one-year mortality of TC has been reported 1-5 and 5.6%, respectively, with a recurrence rate of ≤5% (1,2). Left ventricular systolic function usually recovers within four weeks (1).…”

“…Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC), also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy, mimics an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), predominantly affecting elderly women and is triggered by an emotional or physical stressor ( 1 ), in our case the COVID-19 death update. The term ‘Takotsubo’ means ‘octopus pot’ in Japanese and describes the pathognomonic left ventricular end-systolic apical ballooning, illustrated in transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) and left ventriculography during cononary angiography ( 1 ).…”