Women much more likely to suffer from “broken heart syndrome”

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 17 2011

Researchers have found that a woman’s heart is broken more easily than a man’s. In fact females are seven to nine times more likely to suffer “broken heart syndrome,” when sudden or prolonged stress like an emotional breakup or death causes overwhelming heart failure or heart attack-like symptoms, the first nationwide study of this finds. Usually patients recover with no lasting damage add researchers.

Dr. Mariell Jessup, a University of Pennsylvania heart failure specialist who has treated many such cases cites a classic case – “a woman who has just lost her husband”.

Japanese doctors first recognized this syndrome around 1990 and named it Takotsubo cardiomyopathy; tako tsubo are octopus traps that resemble the unusual pot-like shape of the stricken heart. They explained that this occurs when a big shock, even a good one like winning the lottery, triggers a rush of adrenaline and other stress hormones that cause the heart’s main pumping chamber to expand suddenly and not work right. This leads to dramatic changes in rhythm and blood substances typical of a heart attack, but no artery blockages that typically cause one. Most victims recover within weeks, but in rare cases it proves fatal.

Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh of the University of Arkansas had treated some of these cases. “I was very curious why only women were having this,” he said, so he did the first large study of the problem and reported results Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference in Florida.

Using a federal database with about 1,000 hospitals, Deshmukh found 6,229 cases in 2007. Only 671 involved men. After adjusting for high blood pressure, smoking and other factors that can affect heart problems, women seemed 7.5 times more likely to suffer the syndrome than men. It was three times more common in women over 55 than in younger women. Additionally, women younger than 55 were 9.5 times more likely to suffer from a broken heart than men of that age.

No one knows why, said Dr. Abhiram Prasad, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who presented other research on this syndrome at the conference. “It’s the only cardiac condition where there’s such a female preponderance,” he said.

“In the old days, we’d say someone was scared to death,” said Prasad. About 10 percent of victims will have a second episode sometime in their lives. And although heart attacks happen more in winter, broken heart syndrome is more common in summer say researchers.

Deshmukh feels hormones could have something to do with the trend. Another is that men have more adrenaline receptors on cells in their hearts than women do, “so maybe men are able to handle stress better” and the chemical surge it releases.