Men are about twice as likely to die of "broken heart syndrome" than women.

Background

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy continues to be a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The goal of this study was to evaluate the outcome data of patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy using a large inpatient database.

Methods and Results

We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database for our study. We evaluated trends, mortality, and complications of patients admitted with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy from available years 2016 to 2020 in adults >18. A total of 199 890 patients with Takotsubo were found in our database with 83% being female and higher prevalence with age, White race, and highest income. Mortality was high at 6.5% with no significant improvement over the years studied. Furthermore, major complications were substantial. Cardiogenic shock occurred in 6.6%, atrial fibrillation in 20.7%, cardiac arrest in 3.4%, congestive heart failure in 35.9%, and stroke in 5.3%. Mortality was more than double in men in comparison to women (11.2% versus 5.5%).

Conclusions

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is associated with high mortality and complications with no improvement in outcome over the 5‐year study with higher mortality in men. Further improvement in care is needed to improve outcomes.