During the period of two years from 2001 to 2003, we treated nine cases of takotsubo-type myocardiopathy. In this paper, the clinical characteristics and patients' conditions are described, and the mechanisms leading to dyskinesia of the muscular walls of the heart are discussed. All the cases were female. The mean age was 73 years. Physiological as well as psychological stress was implicated as a major cause of the disease, with onset occurring when some members of their family were suddenly taken ill or when they started quarreling with others. Echocardiograms revealed sigmoid septa in almost half of the nine patients. The prognosis was good. Only one patient had cardiac insufficiency as a sequela, but her condition improved. No one died.Eight patients got over dyskinesia of the left ventricular walls in two weeks. From our experience and studies of literature, we ruled out the possibility of the involvement of circulatory disorder and myocarditis in the onset of the disease. Women of advanced age are apt to have sigmoid septa and left ventricular walls thinning. When the old patient in this condition suffer psychosomatic stress, catecholamines will be released, causing the hypercontraction of the left ventricle, the pressure difference in the chamber, and the collapse of the apical of the heart. We concluded that these physiopathological states may be responsible for the abnormal movements of the muscular walls of the heart peculiar to the disease taken up in this study.
Heart ; Patients ; Dyskinetic syndrome ; Age, NOS ; Heart insufficiency