You can literally die from a broken heart — it's called "Broken Heart Syndrome", and if
that wasn't depressing enough for you, if you're a female — it's more likely to happen to you!
But all is not lost!
I know Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and the way I started
this video is probably not the most uplifting thing you've heard in your entire life...
But if you stick with me, we will end on a positive note,
and you'll have learned something pretty cool along the way... or at least that's my hope.
So lovebirds — let's do this!
So first of all, "Broken Heart Syndrome" really isn't the best name for it.
It's more properly known as Takatsubo Cardiomyopathy, which is Japanese
for "heart muscle problem that looks like an octopus trap"...
and you're probably already sitting there, like... what???
The thing is though, it's actually pretty good name because the heart balloons out,
and it does in fact look like the pot that's used to catch octopus.
In order to figure out what's going wrong here,
let's first orient ourselves with the heart itself.
So the first thing you're going to notice is that we've made a few incisions,
and that's so we can see inside to more effectively and properly teach
You are looking at an anterior view — or the front of the heart.
And then this would be a posterior view, or the back side of the heart.
Now the heart is more or less divided into
half — there's a right deoxygenated half, and a left oxygenated half.
Within those two halves, there are two chambers, so you have four total chambers.
The first chamber we can see is right here, called the right atrium.
This is going to collect deoxygenated blood, and it's going to send it
through this valve — which you can kind of see a bit right there if I can kind
of get this out of the way — called the tricuspid valve.
And we are now inside of the right ventricle.
The right ventricle will then contract, and send it through this blood vessel that we have cut — so
if I could connect that, that would be one singular blood vessel called the pulmonary trunk.
And it's going to send that deoxygenated blood to the lungs — makes perfect sense,
right? You've got to get oxygen.
The lungs are then going to send the blood back — freshly oxygenated — into this chamber here
called the left atrium.
The left atrium will then send the blood through another valve,
which you can see a bit right here, called the mitral valve or the bicuspid valve, into
this gigantic chamber here called the left ventricle.
It's much more massive, much stronger, much larger.
The left ventricle will then contract and send the blood
out this gigantic blood vessel here called the aorta — and it is massive.
It's the size of a garden hose — pretty big.
And that will then distribute the oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
But we also need to focus here because we're gonna be spending most of our
time talking about the left ventricle here.
This point — this point is called the apex of the heart.
And then the apex — oh, well then besides the apex you're
also going to have this upper portion called the base of the left ventricle.
And both of those are going to play an extremely important role
with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy or, "Broken Heart Syndrome."
So what's happening with "Broken Heart Syndrome?"
We actually don't know....
That's because the exact pathophysiology is still currently unknown.
But what we do know
is that the patient usually suffers from some kind of emotional trauma beforehand.
So you can go ahead and fill in the blank here — maybe the IRS contacts you for an immense
amount of back taxes... maybe you lose your job... maybe you lose a loved one... so on and so forth.
But besides this emotional trauma, we do find the presence of something called
catecholamines, and these are gonna be things like
epinephrine and norepinephrine, which you probably know better as adrenaline.
And this should make perfect sense to you, right?
So if you're experiencing an emotional trauma,
your heart's gonna start beating like crazy, right?
Those adrenaline levels are gonna spike, and it could actually be that the spike in adrenaline
and the presence of all these catecholamines are what cause Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.
The reason why some think that, is because we see elevated levels of catecholamines
in other heart conditions, so it kind of seems plausible that too much adrenaline
could literally cause you — or your heart to break.
But at the same time, we do have other theories out there, and if I were to place my bet,
it would be that there are multiple things all happening at once — it's
not just going to be the presence of adrenaline.
So regardless of what causes it, what's happening to the heart — or at least to
this pointed portion called the apex — is that it balloons out.
But not only does it balloon out, this upper portion of the left ventricle that
I'm touching with my index fingers here, called the base, is going to contract.
So if you have this contracture and this ballooning at the same time,
that's what gives that typical octopus trap shape.
The problem with this — besides the fact that the heart is literally getting bigger — is that
when the apex balloons out, it's no longer going to be able to contract effectively,
meaning it's not going to be able to eject
an adequate amount of blood out of the aorta, to be delivered to the rest of the body.
Remember, this blood is oxygenated and that's literally what your entire body runs off of.
This is why it can be so difficult
to properly diagnose broken heart syndrome in its earliest stages.
That's because the symptoms are so closely aligned with other
types of heart conditions, such as a heart attack.
You're gonna experience chest pain and shortness of breath, for instance.
That means the only way to properly diagnose whether you
have a heart attack or some other heart failure or Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy,
is to do tests, such as an ECG, an echocardiogram, an angiogram, or an MRI.
Now you may be wondering... "Justin — why does it affect females more than males?
That's very strange!"
And to you, I would say....
"That's a good question... that we don't have an answer for."
But it's even more than that!
Not only does it affect females more than males, it affects post-menopausal females
more so — and we also don't know why!
So I can see you right now saying...
"Hey Justin, you said we're going to end on a good note!"
And you're right — I did.
You ready for some fantastic news?
You're not all that likely to die from it!
Most patients fully recover, unless they have some other underlying condition.
That's because it has a fantastic prognosis, when you compare it to
other heart conditions such as a heart attack or other types of heart failure.
In fact, the left ventricle more or less will return to normal
after a few months of rest and some medications, such as beta blockers.
So yes — it may be possible to die from a broken heart, but it's not all that probable.
So that sounds like some good news to me!
Thanks for watching everybody!
I really hope you enjoyed this one!
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