Broken heart syndrome

Why a broken heart is difficult to treat

Doctors also call broken heart syndrome stress cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome.(Bild: dream@do - stock.adobe.com)

Mental pain can trigger physical pain. Two to three percent of patients who end up in the emergency room with heart attack symptoms suffer from broken heart syndrome - also known as Takotsubo. What exactly happens and how medicine responds.

With chest pain, shortness of breath and sweating, the elderly woman in the emergency room at Heidelberg University Hospital had all the signs of a heart attack. The electrocardiogram (ECG) and a blood count confirmed the suspicion. But further examinations did not: all coronary vessels were clear, no acute infarction.