Age related differences and outcome of patients with Takotsubo syndrome

BACKGROUND: Takotsubo syndrome (TS) is an important cardiac disease that affects predominantly postmenopausal women. This study was conducted to determine the impact of age on the short- and long-term outcome of TS patients. METHODS & RESULTS: The data from a collective of 114 TS patients with a mean follow-up of 1591 ± 1079 days was retrospectively analysed. The study population was divided into two groups (≤ 65 and > 65 years) so as to evaluate the impact of age on the short- and long-term mortality of TS patients. In-hospital events like life-threatening arrhythmias (14.58% vs. 9.09%; P = 0.036), need for mechanical respiratory support (41.66% vs. 28.78%; P = 0.15) as well as inotropic agent use (22.91% vs. 15.15%; P = 0.29), although not reaching the statistical cut-of, tended to occur more often in the younger group. Heart failure was more common in the elderly age group (P = 0.03). The use of multivariate analysis ruled out age as a significant marker of long term mortality (HR: 1.0; 95% CI: 0.9–1.0; P = 0.60). CONCLUSIONS: Age does not influence the clinical course of TS in terms of the short- as well as long-term outcome. The study revealed a higher incidence of life threatening arrhythmias in the younger patient age-group and a higher incidence of heart failure among the older group of patients.