Lack of soluble circulating cardiodepressant factors in takotsubo cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Circulating cardiodepressant factors were found to mediate cardiac dysfunction in patients with sepsis and acute systolic heart failure. To investigate the presence of circulating cardiodepressant factors in patients with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (TC), plasma samples were collected from 4 patients with TC, 3 with septic shock, 5 with acute systolic heart failure and 4 healthy controls and injected intraperitoneally in mice. The cardiodepressant effects are measured with transthoracic echocardiography. Plasma injection from control and TC subjects had no effects on left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) whereas plasma from the other two groups induced a significant reduction in LVEF. At difference than sepsis and acute heart failure, TC is not characterized by the presence of soluble cardiodepressant factors. Myocardial dysfunction in TC may be mediated by a neurocardiogenic mechanism.

Keywords: Circulating cardiodepressant factors; Neurocardiogenic stunning; Takotsubo.