Unusual case of left ventricular ballooning involving the inferior wall: a case report

• Published in: Cases journal Vol. 2; no. 1; p. 140
• Main Authors: Rognoni, Andrea, Bertolazzi, Marzia, Maccio', Sergio, Reale, Danilo, Proietti, Riccardo, Rognoni, Giorgio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Cases Network Ltd 20-02-2009; BioMed Central Ltd; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Cardiomyopathy; Care and treatment; Case Report; Case studies; Diagnosis; Heart diseases; Risk factors; Italy; Japan
• ISSN: 1757-1626; 1757-1626
• DOI: 10.1186/1757-1626-2-140

Tako - tsubo like syndrome (also named left ventricular apical ballooning) is an unusual cardiomyopathy with an high incidence in Japanese population of female sex, following an emotional stress. The clinical features (typical chest pain), and the electrocardiographic changes (negative T wave and persistent ST elevation in anterior leads), are suggestive of an acute myocardial infarction; nevertheless the coronary angiography show coronary arteries without lesions and the ventriculography show specific segmental dysfunction. In the literature there are many reports of typical left ventricular ballooning (apical); due to the rarity of the atypical localizations (such as mid, basal, anterior or inferior left ventricular wall) many authors think they are different physiopatologic entity.
We report a case of 50 - years old woman, with a family history of ischeamic cardiomyopathy but with no additional cardiovascular risk factors, who arrived to emergency department with a recent episode of chest pain (about 30 minutes) with electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features suggested of a inferior ST elevation myocardial infarction. Coronary angiography showed coronary arteries without atherosclerotic lesions; ventriculography showed an inferior dysfunction.
This data can suggest for an atypical form (in term of clinical presentation and localization) of left ventricular ballooning involving the inferior wall (never described in the literature), not preceded by any emotional or physical stress. The follow - up performed by transthoracic echocardiography (2 months later) revealed a complete regression of wall motions abnormalities.