Heart Care Info - Heart Disease Prevention & Treatment

Why Not Just Call It Tako-Tsubo Cardiomyopathy: A Discussion of Nomenclature

SW Sharkey, JR Lesser... - Journal of the ..., 2011 - Am Coll Cardio Found In 1991, Dote et al.(1) reported 5 patients with a novel, acute cardiac condition characterized by distinctive regional left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, in the absence of significant atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Other Japanese investigators were intrigued by ...

Scott W. Sharkey, MD, John R. Lesser, MD, Martin S. Maron, MD and Barry J. Maron, MD*

To the Editor:

In 1991, Dote et al. (1) reported 5 patients with a novel, acute cardiac condition characterized by distinctive regional left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, in the absence of significant atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. Other Japanese investigators were intrigued by the unusual end-systolic shape of the LV, which resembled the "tako-tsubo," a fisherman's pot with a round bottom and narrow neck used for trapping octopuses (2 4). Consequently, the term tako-tsubo was introduced to describe a new cardiomyopathic syndrome characterized by reversible LV systolic dysfunction.

Over the next 2 decades, this condition became widely recognized in Japan and subsequently gained international recognition with reports from 6 continents and 14 diverse countries: France, U.S., Belgium, Mexico, Australia, Spain, South Korea, China, Brazil, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and Iceland. In the process, this condition acquired a remarkable multiplicity of 75 individual descriptive names (Table 1), emphasizing those disease features most impressive to individual investigators. As additional information emerged, new insights led to more names.