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. 2021 Apr 22;28(2):19.
doi: 10.5837/bjc.2021.019. eCollection 2021.

When Blades broke my heart

Nadir Elamin  1 , Izhar Hashmi  1 , Martin Tilney  2 , Ever Grech  3
Affiliations

When Blades broke my heart

Nadir Elamin et al. Br J Cardiol. .

Abstract

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) was first described about 30 years ago. It has been attributed to the sudden catecholamine surge in relation to severe stress, which can cause multi-vessel coronary spasms and myocardial apical ballooning. Football supporters are prone to develop severe stress due to sudden changes in match results. This case presents a football supporter of Sheffield United (the Blades) who was admitted to the hospital with cardiac sounding chest pain following a last minute goal by the opposing team. The necessary investigations were carried out including coronary angiogram and echocardiogram. He was diagnosed with TCM following a left ventricular angiogram demonstrating the typical appearance of the octopus pot.

Keywords: acute chest pain; cardiomyopathy; catecholamine surge; coronary spasm.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Left ventricular angiogram showing the apical ballooning and ‘octopus pot’ appearance
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. The octopus pot, used to trap octopus, is a traditional fishing method in Japan and south Asia
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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