Love can really break hearts, doctors conclude

Linda Johnson, New York

In a study published in time for Valentine’s Day, doctors reported how a tragic or shocking event can produce heart attack-like symptoms, including chest pain, shortness of breath and fluid in the lungs.

Unlike a heart attack, the condition is reversible. Patients often are hospitalised but typically recover within days after bed rest and fluids, and suffer no permanent heart damage.

In their study, published in yesterday’s New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at Johns Hopkins University gave a name to the condition, showed through tests how it differs from a heart attack and offered explanations for its causes.

For centuries, doctors knew emotional shocks can trigger heart attacks and sudden deaths.

Broken heart syndrome, technically known as stress cardiomyopathy, is different.

The Johns Hopkins doctors documented how a days-long surge of adrenaline and other stress hormones can cause a decline in the heart’s pumping capacity. Researchers theorised the hormones cause tiny heart blood vessels to contract, but other explanations are possible.

Dr Hunter Champion said until now, doctors “were trying to explain it away, but the pieces never quite fit.”

Dr Champion and his colleagues treated 19 patients with the syndrome between 1999 and 2003. For reasons not entirely clear, nearly all were postmenopausal women. Many were grieving the death of a husband, parent or child.

Other triggers included a surprise party, car accident, armed robbery, argument and court appearance.