Gender differences in clinical characteristic and in-hospital outcome in patients with takotsubo syndrome

Introduction Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acute reversible left ventricular dysfunction, which occurs mainly in postmenopausal women. Objectives The goal of this study was to compare the course of the disease and prognoses in men and women with TTS in 2 large Polish university hospitals. Patients and methods The analysis included 232 patients (211 women and 21 men) hospitalized at the 1st Chair and Department of Cardiology at the Medical University of Warsaw and at the 1st Department of Cardiology at the Medical University of Gdansk. Results Men who developed TTS were more likely to live alone than women. Physical stress triggered TTS more often in men than in women. There were no differences in the prevalence of risk factors and comorbidities, except for a higher prevalence of smoking in men. With regard to the cardiac biomarkers, both admission and peak levels of N‑terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide were higher in women. ST‑segment depression was found more frequently in men than in women (25% vs 6.2%). Despite the same length of hospitalization, ejection fraction at discharge was lower in men than in women (50% vs 60%). In‑hospital outcomes (arrhythmias, mechanical complications, cardiogenic shock, mortality rate) were similar in both groups. β-Adrenolytics and statins were more often prescribed to women than to men (74.5% vs 52.4% and 68.3% vs 38.1%). Moreover, there was a tendency toward more frequent use of P2Y12 inhibitors in men than in women (23.8% vs 10.4%). Conclusions Differences occurred in the clinical course of TTS between men and women. However, in‑hospital outcomes were similar in both groups.