Thursday, December 08, 2011

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy versus anterior STEMI: is there an electrocardiographic differentiation?

TC can present with anterior ST elevation, in which case it resembles acute anterior STEMI. This paper demonstrates an electrocardiographic differentiation:

ST-segment elevation greater than or equal to 1 mm in greater than or equal to1 of leads V3 to V5 without ST-segment elevation greater than or equal to1 mm in lead V1 identified TC with sensitivity of 74.2% and specificity of 80.6%.

It is amazing to me how the power of electrocardiography continues to be discovered year after year. However, this finding is of limited practical value. At a specificity of 80% for TC you wouldn't want to rely on this pattern to exclude patients from reperfusion.