Delayed hyperenhancement in a case of takotsubo cardiomyopathy

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) consists of an acute onset of transient akinesia of various parts of the left ventricle (apex and mid in classical TTC, mid and base in the variant form), without significant coronary artery stenosis, often accompanied by chest pain, dynamic reversible ST-T segment abnormalities and elevation of cardiac enzymes disproportionate to the extent of akinesia. Contrast-enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a useful adjunct in the diagnostic work up of patients with TTC. Delayed hyperenhancement on gadolinium-enhanced CMR, which is indicative of active inflammation (e.g. myocarditis) or myocardial fibrosis (e.g. myocardial infarction), is usually absent in patients with TTC. In this report we present the case of a 46-years old women with TTC who had an extensive area of apical and midventricular akinesia and in whom gadolinium-enhanced CMR demonstrated a small area of subendocardial delayed hyperenhancement. A gadolinium-enhanced CMR performed 6 weeks later exhibited complete reversal of all wall motion abnormalities and an identical area of subendocardial delayed hyperenhancement.