Role of echocardiography in stress cardiomyopathy diagnosis after tracheal extubation

Abstract

Stress cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a new syndrome and still insufficiently recognized among emergency patients, hospitalized patients. Many different physical and emotional stressors are triggers, but individual susceptibility to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy can not be predicted. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in surgical and critical care population is a huge diagnostic challenge. Apart that these patients are treated in stressful environment and conditions. Postoperatively due to change of consciousness and inability to speak we can not rely on verbal symptoms to make differential diagnosis. Although essential sometimes they can not be submitted to coronary angiography to exclude obstructive coronary disease due many risk factors. So, then we follow clinical course, electrocardiographic, radiologic and echocardiographic dynamic changes, laboratory findings and consiliar opinion to make diagnosis. We represent a case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a 59-years old postmenopausal Caucasian woman after tracheal extubation. She was submitted to surgery of intraabdominal collection evacuation in short general endotracheal anesthesia.