Clinical characteristics of stress cardiomyopathy in patients with acute poisoning

Patients who attempt intentional suicide suffer from physical or emotional stress. This situation might be an important factor that causes takotsubo cardiomyopathy. We retrospectively investigated the clinical features of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in patients with acute poisoning. This study included patients who were admitted from January 2010 to December 2015 because of intentional poisoning by ingestion. Among these patients, we selectively collected data of patients who underwent an echocardiogram. We divided the patients into three groups according to the echocardiogram; the non-cardiomyopathy group, the global hypokinesia group, and the takotsubo cardiomyopathy group. One hundred forty-seven patients were analyzed in this study. One hundred thirty-one patients had normal cardiac function without regional wall motion abnormality. Global hypokinesia was observed in five patients. The overall incidence of takotsubo cardiomyopathy was 7.5% (11/147). Levels of cardiac enzymes including CK-MB, Troponin T, a marker of cardiac muscle ischemia, were higher in the global hypokinesia group and the takotsubo cardiomyopathy group compared with the non-cardiomyopathy group. The most commonly consumed poison was organophosphate in the takotsubo cardiomyopathy group. In conclusion, takotsubo cardiomyopathy may be one of the cardiac complications in patients who attempt suicide by consuming a poison.