The mortality rate from a cardiovascular disease called “broken heart syndrome” has been found to be twice as high among men as among women. At the same time, the majority of patients with this disease are women. However, scientists do not yet know why “broken heart syndrome” affects people of different sexes differently. Research published in Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers studied the prevalence of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens the heart muscle. Because the condition is often triggered by emotional turmoil, it is also called “broken heart syndrome.” Over a five-year period, the researchers tracked nearly 200 cases of “broken heart syndrome” among Americans with hospital records during that time. The disease was most common in women, with 83 percent of cases being female.
The overall mortality rate was over six percent, and this figure did not decrease over the period 2016-2020, meaning that the care of patients with “broken heart syndrome” did not improve. Men with this diagnosis died in more than 11 percent of cases, while women died in 5,5 percent of cases.
Complications of the disease were also common, with more than a third of patients developing heart failure and five percent suffering a stroke. Given this high mortality and risk of complications, research into the mechanism of "broken heart syndrome" in men and women is needed to develop prevention methods and medications that are effective for both sexes.
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