A curious Takotsubo cardiomyopathy after COVID-19

Abstract

We present the case of a 66-year-old woman undergoing chronic dialysis who developed pneumonia and enteritis after being infected with COVID-19 and had severe wall motion reduction similar to a left ventricular aneurysm. There was concern that the condition might worsen due to left ventricular wall thinning and curious wall motion abnormalities, but echocardiography one month later showed normalization. After four months, simultaneous binuclear myocardial scintigraphy of thallium and BMIPP showed that the mismatch had disappeared. We considered that there may be other factors specific to COVID-19 infection in addition to the stress associated with infection and reviewed the literature.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Takotsubo cardiomyopathy
• Left ventricular aneurysm
• β2-adrenergic receptors
• G protein-coupled receptors
• Cytokine storm