
Males Two Times as Likely to Die From ‘Broken Heart Syndrome,' Study Finds
Although the condition appears to be much more common in females, males may be significantly more likely to die from it.
'Broken heart syndrome' is commonly associated with other major complications, including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and cardiogenic shock.
Men may be more than twice as likely as women to die from takotsubo cardiomyopathy, colloquially known as 'broken heart syndrome,' a new study suggests.
Although takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) seems to predominantly affect females, accounting for approximately 80% of cases in the study, males who develop the condition appear to have worse outcomes. The reasons for these sex-based differences in TC, which is a relatively uncommon diagnosis, remain unclear.
Researchers also observed that over the five-year period of investigation, mortality rates associated with TC did not improve, despite advancements in care.
'We were surprised to find that the death rate from Takotsubo cardiomyopathy was relatively high without significant changes over the five-year study, and the rate of in-hospital complications also was elevated,' said study author Mohammad Reza Movahed, MD, PhD, an interventional cardiologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona's Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, Arizona, in a press release.
'The continued high death rate is alarming, suggesting that more research be done for better treatment and finding new therapeutic approaches to this condition,' Movahed continued.
TC is a temporary heart condition that can be caused by a surge in stress hormones, often linked to intense emotional or physical experiences, such as the loss of a loved one or a car accident. This leads to the weakening and enlargement of part of the heart, which restricts its ability to pump blood effectively.
Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association on May 14 sheds new light on the prevalence of this cardiovascular condition, but many questions remain unanswered.
'It's definitely hypothesis generating,' said Abha Khandelwal, MD, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Stanford Medicine who was not affiliated with the study.
However, she continued, 'We still have a lot to learn about which patients are really going to present with the malignant form of this condition.'
A 'woman's disease' much more likely to kill men
Researchers used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), a public database of de-identified hospitalization data, to identify cases of TC between 2016 and 2020.
The study identified nearly 200,000 cases during this period, with women comprising the vast majority (83%) of patients—a finding consistent with existing data about the condition.
The average age of patients admitted with TC was 67. Demographic patterns emerged in the data, as 80% of cases were diagnosed in white patients, suggesting potential racial differences in prevalence or diagnosis rates.
Although men made up a much smaller portion of those admitted for TC, they had more than double the likelihood of dying, 11.2% compared to 5.5% for women.
The study could not determine the reasons for this mortality gap, as the retrospective observational design limits researchers to identifying associations rather than establishing causation.
However, Khandelwal suggests that the stereotype of TC being a 'woman's disease' may play a role in the worse outcomes seen in men.
'When a disease presents the way we expect it to, people do fine, but it's really the outliers that tend to have worse outcomes. In the old days, coronary artery disease was considered a man's disease. So, when women came into the hospital with heart attacks, they had worse outcomes. So, this is like a reverse of that,' she said.
Other cardiovascular comorbidities are common among patients presenting with TC, as observed in the study. The most frequently reported cardiovascular complications included:
congestive heart failure (36% of cases)
atrial fibrillation (21%)
cardiogenic shock (7%)
stroke (5%)
The overall mortality rate among patients with TC was significantly higher (6.58%) than other patients (2.41%), making them nearly three times more likely to die.
TC is generally transient, however. Most individuals recover within two months, with a low risk of it recurring.
Still, the study's design and the presence of multiple serious comorbidities make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the persistently elevated mortality rate in TC, according to Khandelwal.
'It doesn't tell you about the clinical characteristics of the people with the disease.These patients were critically ill, and there may be other comorbidities that were influencing their mortality. So, it's very hard to know what drove it,' she said.
In fact, the authors themselves even acknowledge that the prevalence of TC observed during the study could be attributable to greater awareness of the condition among doctors who might have otherwise recorded it as some other form of acute coronary syndrome.
What causes a 'broken heart'?
Much remains unknown about TC, including its precise cause, but it has earned the nickname 'broken heart syndrome' for good reason.
The condition can be triggered by sudden loss, emotional trauma, or even an acute scare.
Khandelwal has seen the condition multiple times in her career, including a case in which a grandmother developed TC after being startled by her young grandchild.
Each year, TC accounts for approximately 2–3% of patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome, and that rate doubles to 5–6% among females. But the actual rates of TC are unclear, as it may be underdiagnosed.
TC is generally indistinguishable from a heart attack at the time of presentation. Common symptoms include:
To diagnose TC, physicians must first rule out coronary artery blockages — typically using an angiogram — and then use additional imaging, such as an echocardiogram, to detect abnormalities in the heart's left ventricle.
While often triggered by emotional distress like grief following the loss of a loved one, takotsubo cardiomyopathy can also develop after physical traumas such as car accidents or major surgery — earning it the additional designation ' stress-induced cardiomyopathy.'
Researchers have yet to fully understand its underlying mechanisms. Notably, TC sometimes occurs without any identifiable trigger, further complicating efforts to pinpoint its precise causes.
The most prominent hypothesis today is that during an acute shock, the heart is flooded with catecholamines, a cluster of stress hormones including norepinephrine and epinephrine, that stun the left ventricle of the heart.
The uncommon nature of the condition along with its unpredictability make it difficult to prevent.
'We still can't predict who is going to get it, and under what circumstances. Is there a stress threshold? We really don't know. And of those who get it, we also don't know which ones are going to get a more malignant form,' said Khandelwal.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Bloomberg
15 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Alphabet, Las Vegas Sands, UnitedHealth
On this episode of Stock Movers: - Alphabet (GOOGL) shares rise after the company said demand for artificial intelligence products boosted quarterly sales, and now requires an extreme increase in capital spending — heightening pressure on the company to justify the cost of keeping up in the AI race. - Las Vegas Sands (LVS) shares climb after the casino and resorts operator reported adjusted earnings per share for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimate. Analysts attribute the beat to a solid performance in Singapore offsetting weakness in Macau. - UnitedHealth (UNH) shares fall. UnitedHealth is responding to criminal and civil requests from the US Department of Justice about its Medicare practices, the company said, and has "full confidence" in its practices.


WIRED
15 minutes ago
- WIRED
An Inventor Is Injecting Bleach Into Cancerous Tumors—and Wants to Bring the Treatment to the US
Xuewu Liu, a Chinese inventor who has no medical training or credentials of any kind, is charging cancer patients $20,000 for access to an AI-driven but entirely unproven treatment that includes injecting a highly concentrated dose of chlorine dioxide, a toxic bleach solution, directly into cancerous tumors. One patient tells WIRED her tumor has grown faster since the procedure and that she suspects it may have caused her cancer to spread—a claim Liu disputes—while experts allege his marketing of the treatment has likely put him on the wrong side of US regulations. Nonetheless, while Liu currently only offers the treatment informally in China and at a German clinic, he is now working with a Texas-based former pharmaceutical executive to bring his treatment to America. They believe that the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary will help 'open doors' to get the untested treatment—in which at least one clinic in California appears to have interest—approved in the US. Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is embracing alternative medicines and the idea of giving patients the freedom to try unproven treatments. While the health secretary did not respond to a request for comment about Liu's treatment, he did mention chlorine dioxide when questioned about President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed during his Senate confirmation hearing in February, and the Food and Drug Administration recently removed a warning about substance from its website. The agency says the removal was part of a routine process of archiving old pages on its site, but it has had the effect of emboldening the bleacher community. 'Without the FDA's heavy-handed warnings, it's likely my therapy would have been accepted for trials years earlier, with institutional partnerships and investor support,' Liu tells WIRED. He says he wrote to Kennedy earlier this year urging him to conduct more research on chlorine dioxide. 'This quiet removal won't immediately change everything, but it opens a door. If mainstream media reports on this shift, I believe it will unlock a new wave of serious [chlorine dioxide] research.' For decades, pseudoscience grifters have peddled chlorine dioxide solutions—sold under a variety of names, such as Miracle Mineral Solution—and despite warnings and prosecutions, have continued to claim the toxic substance is a 'cure' for everything from HIV to Covid-19 to autism. There is no credible evidence to back up any of these claims, which critics have long labeled as nothing more than a grift. The treatments typically involve drinking liquid chlorine dioxide on a regular basis, using solutions with concentrations of chlorine dioxide of around 3,000 parts per million (ppm), which is diluted further in water. Liu's treatment, however, involves a much higher concentration of chlorine dioxide—injections of several milliliters of 20,000ppm—and, rather than drinking it, patients have it injected directly into their tumors. Liu claims he has injected himself with the solution over 50 times and suffered no side effects. 'This personal data point encouraged me to continue research,' he says.


Bloomberg
15 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
C3.ai CEO Tom Siebel to Seek Successor Due to Health Concerns
Software company Inc. is looking for a new chief executive officer after Tom Siebel said he intends to step aside due to health concerns. 'After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in early 2025, I have experienced significant visual impairment,' Siebel said in a statement Thursday. He will remain executive chairman once the company's board appoints a successor, he added.