Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in athletes

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) has become more common in clinical practice, and with a wide variety of pathologies, which is apparently associated with an improvement in the diagnosis of this disease. At the same time, this diagnosis is still not always established, primarily due to the lack of doctors’ awareness about this disease. TTC has many synonyms: broken heart syndrome, stress-induced cardiomyopathy, apical ballooning syndrome. TTC is a form of acute and, as a rule, reversible heart failure, provoked in most patients by various stress factors, occurring with transient dysfunction primarily of the left ventricle, clinically and echocardiographically resembling acute coronary syndrome. Recently, TTC has become more common in athletes, during stress testing (bicycle ergometry, treadmill test). Taking into account the large amount of information about TTC and the many unresolved issues, it’s necessary to analyze the literature and share our own experience in TTC diagnosis. The article highlights aspects of the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnostics and treatment of stress-induced TTC, which occurs in response to physical or mental stress and characterized by transient left ventricular dysfunction. The clinical example is the authors’ own observation.

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