Serum lipoprotein levels in takotsubo cardiomyopathy vs. myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND: In the setting of myocardial infarction (MI) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS), current guidelines recommend early and aggressive lipid lowering therapy with statins, irrespective of the baseline lipoprotein levels. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) patients have a clinical presentation similar to myocardial infarction and thus receive early and aggressive statin therapy during their initial hospitalization. However, the pathology of TCM is not atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and hence we assumed the lipid profiles in TCM would be healthier than coronary artery disease patients. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we assessed fasting serum lipoprotein levels of ten TCM patients and compared them with forty, age and sex-matched myocardial infarction (MI) patients. RESULTS: Comparing serum lipoprotein levels of TCM with MI group, there was no significant difference in mean total cholesterol between the two groups (174.5 mg/dL vs. 197.6 mg/dL, p = 0.12). However, in the TCM group, mean HDL-C was significantly higher (66.87 mg/dL vs. 36.5 mg/dL, p = 0.008), the mean LDL-C was significantly lower (89.7 mg/dL vs. 128.9 mg/dL, p = 0.0002), and mean triglycerides was also significantly lower (65.2 mg/dL vs. 166.8 mg/dL, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, TCM patients in comparison to MI patients had significantly higher levels of HDL-C, lower levels of LDL-C levels and triglycerides. The lipid profiles in TCM were consistent with the underlying pathology of non-atherosclerotic, non-obstructive coronary artery disease. As lipoproteins in most TCM patients were within the optimal range, we recommend an individual assessment of lipid profiles along with their coronary heart disease risk factors for considering long term lipid-lowering therapy. A finding of hyperalphalipoproteinemia or hypotriglyceridemia in 40% of TCM patients is novel but this association needs to be confirmed in future studies with larger sample sizes. These findings may provide clues in understanding the pathogenesis of takotsubo cardiomyopathy.