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Background: No evidence-based therapy has yet been established for Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). Given the putative harmful effects of catecholamines in patients with TTS, beta-blockers may potentially decrease the intensity of the detrimental cardiac effects in those patients., Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of beta-blocker therapy on long-term mortality and TTS recurrence., Methods: The cohort study used the national Spanish Registry on TakoTsubo Syndrome (RETAKO). A total of 970 TTS post-discharge survivors, without pheochromocytoma, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, sustained ventricular arrhythmias, and significant bradyarrhythmias, between January 1, 2003, and July 31, 2018, were assessed. Cox regression analysis and inverse probability weighting (IPW) propensity score analysis were used to evaluate the association between beta-blocker therapy and survival free of TTS recurrence., Results: From 970 TTS patients, 582 (60.0%) received beta-blockers. During a mean follow-up of 2.5±3.3 years, there were 87 deaths (3.6 per 100 patients/year) and 29 TTS recurrences (1.2 per 100 patient/year). There was no significant difference in follow-up mortality or TTS recurrence in unadjusted and adjusted Cox analysis (hazard ratio [HR] 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.59-1.27, and 0.95, 95% CI 0.57-1.13, respectively). After weighting and adjusting by IPW, differences in one-year survival free of TTS recurrence between patients treated and untreated with beta-blockers were not found (average treatment effect -0.01, 95% CI -0.07 to 0.04; p=0.621)., Conclusions: In this observational nationwide study from Spain, there was no significant association between beta-blocker therapy and follow-up survival free of TTS recurrence., (Copyright © 2023. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

Introduction: Endothelial dysfunction and platelet activation have been highlighted as possible mediators in Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). Nevertheless, to date, evidence on the usefulness of antiplatelet therapy in TTS remains controversial. The aim of our study is to evaluate long-term prognosis in TTS patients treated with antiplatelet therapy (APT) at hospitalization discharge., Material and Methods: An ambispective cohort study from the Spanish National Takotsubo Registry database was performed (June 2002 to March 2017). Patients were divided into two groups: those who received APT at hospital discharge (APT cohort) and those who did not (non-APT cohort). Primary endpoint was all-cause death. Secondary endpoints included the composite of recurrence or readmission and a composite of death, recurrence or readmission., Results: From a total of 741 patients, 728 patients were alive at discharge. Follow-up was performed in 544 patients, who were included in the final analysis: 321 patients (59.0%) in the APT cohort and 223 patients (41.0%) in the non-APT cohort. The APT cohort had a better clinical presentation and received more heart failure and acute coronary syndrome-like therapies (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers: 75.1% vs. 51.1%; p<0.001, betablockers: 71.3% vs. 50.7%; p<0.001, statins: 67.9% vs. 33.2%; p<0.001). After adjusting for confounder factors, APT at discharge was a protective factor for all-cause death (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.315, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.106-0.943; p=0.039) and the composite endpoint of all-cause death, recurrence or readmission (adjusted HR 0.318, 95% CI: 0.164-0.619; p=0.001) at month 25 of follow-up., Conclusion: Patients with TTS receiving APT at discharge presented better prognosis up to two-years of follow-up compared with their counterparts not receiving APT., (Copyright © 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

A 66-year-old male ex-smoker with hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia was admitted due to a non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. The catheterisation depicted an extensive and calcified disease: chronic total obstruction of the right coronary and severe disease with a giant aneurysm at the first marginal branch as the culprit vessel. After discussion, the right coronary was treated before the circumflex-giant aneurysm was closed with a stent graft and its multiple severe stenosis solved with two drug-eluting stents. We provide a multimodality approach for a complex case and briefly discuss the available options., (Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

A 62-year-old woman was admitted with chest pain of two hours' duration, ECG changes in the precordial leads and left ventricular ejection fraction of 30% on the echocardiogram. Emergent catheterization demonstrated severe flow disturbance in the left coronary artery. An intra-aortic balloon pump and a drug-eluting stent were implanted. However, the flow disturbance persisted. Optical coherence tomography followed by intravascular ultrasound provided crucial data on the mechanism and helped to optimize treatment in this critical patient., (Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)