The Risk of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy in Acute Neurological Disease

Abstract

Background: Case series have reported reversible left ventricular dysfunction, also known as stress cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM), in the setting of acute neurological diseases such as subarachnoid hemorrhage. The relative associations between various neurological diseases and Takotsubo remain incompletely understood.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of all adults in the National Inpatient Sample, a nationally representative sample of US hospitalizations, from 2006 to 2014. Our exposures of interest were primary diagnoses of acute neurological disease, defined by ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. Our outcome was a diagnosis of TCM. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between our pre-specified neurological diagnoses and TCM after adjustment for demographics.

Results: Among acute neurological diagnoses, the strongest associations were seen with subarachnoid hemorrhage (odds ratio [OR] 11.7; 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.2-13.4), status epilepticus (OR 4.9; 95% CI 3.7-6.3), and seizures (OR 1.3; 95% CI 1.1-1.5). In a sensitivity analysis including secondary diagnoses of acute neurological diagnoses, associations were also seen with transient global amnesia (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.5-3.6), meningoencephalitis (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.7-2.5), migraine (OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.5-1.8), intracerebral hemorrhage (OR 1.3; 95% CI 1.1-1.5), and ischemic stroke (OR 1.2; 95% CI 1.1-1.3). In addition, female sex was strongly associated with Takotsubo (OR 5.1; 95% CI 4.9-5.4).

Conclusion: TCM appears to be associated with varying degrees with several acute neurological diseases besides subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Keywords: Cardiomyopathies; Critical care; Nervous system diseases; Status epilepticus; Subarachnoid hemorrhage; Takotsubo cardiomyopathy; Ventricular dysfunction.