Gender Differences in the Circadian and Seasonal Variations in Patients with Takotsubo Syndrome: A Multicenter Registry at Eight University Hospitals in East Japan

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to clarify the circadian and seasonal variations in addition to identify sex-based differences in Japanese patients with Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective observational study to analyse the differences between the groups based on sex. PATIENTS: The patients were registered out of each institute registry of the acute coronary syndrome (ACS) which contains a total of 10,622 cases in eight academic hospitals in east Japan. RESULTS: Data for 344 consecutive TTS (73 male and 271 female) were extracted from each hospital registry. In-hospital mortality was higher in the male group than in the female group (18% vs. 7%; p=0.005). With regard to the circadian variations in all study patients, TTS events occurred most often in the afternoon and least often during the night. Moreover, the patterns of circadian variations in the female and male groups were the same as that of all study patients. TTS events occurred most frequently in the autumn and least often in the spring in the whole study cohort. Moreover, the seasonal variation in the female group showed the same pattern as that of the whole cohort. However, there were no significant seasonal differences in the incidence of TTS in the male group. CONCLUSION: In a multicenter study in Japan, seasonal variation was observed in the female group but not in the male group. Circadian variation was observed in both groups. These results suggested that the pathogenesis and clinical features of TTS might therefore differ according to sex.