Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare (Jun 2017)
‘Broken heart’ in acute-on-chronic liver failure
Abstract
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy usually occurs as a result of catecholamine release causing myocardial ‘stunning’ during physical or emotional stress. Typically coronary angiogram shows normal or minor coronary artery disease and echocardiogram shows apical ballooning with basal wall hyperkinesia. The prognosis is excellent with good cardiac functional recovery within days to weeks. We report the first case of takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a patient with acute-on-chronic liver failure.