Dr. Elaine Kamil was shocked when she was diagnosed with Broken Heart Syndrome. Here’s how she discovered the condition and got it under control
Despite the late hour, Dr. Kamil, a pediatric nephrologist at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, who also has a faculty appointment at UCLA, headed for the ER. “When I was admitted, my cardiologist was called and informed that I was there for a coronary issue. He was surprised because just a few months prior, I’d done a stress echo — an echocardiogram done while exercising — and it was normal.”
It turned out that the problem wasn’t her coronaries. When the doctors did a cardiac catheterization the next morning, they discovered the real issue: Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.
In Japanese, the word “Takotsubo” means “octopus trap,” which is similar to the shape the heart’s left ventricle takes when affected by Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. But the condition has other names, too: Apical Ballooning Syndrome (since it causes the lower part of the left ventricle to balloon out), and Stress Cardiomyopathy.
The most common name for the condition, however, is Broken Heart Syndrome because “the initiating factor appears to be intense psychological emotional stress, such as a sudden personal loss,” notes Dr. David A. Kass, M.D., director, Institute of CardioScience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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