A broken heart affects thyroid markers especially FT4

[diogenes]

It's known that there is such a thing as a broken heart after bereavement or other loss of partner - it's called the takotsubo syndrome because first found in Japan. This paper explores what happens to thyroid markers in this case. Danger of heart literally exploding in profound grief. Accessible:

Full-text available

Abnormal thyroid function is common in takotsubo syndrome and depends on two distinct mechanisms: results of a multicentre observational study

November 2020Journal of Internal Medicine Follow journal

DOI: 10.1111/joim.13189

LicenseCC BY 4.0

Projects: AQUA FONTIS StudyType 2 allostatic response of thyroid function as a cardiovascular risk factor Complexity in Medicine: Practical Problems, Their Definitions, Models, and Solutions

Assem Aweimer, Ibrahim El-Battrawy, Johannes W. Dietrich et al

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Thank you, diogenes.

Seconds before I received an alert for this post, I had noticed a BBC radio program which seems to, at least in part, sit alongside:

Made of Stronger Stuff

The Heart

Released On: 17 Feb 2021

Available for over a year

Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body, to find out what it can tell us about our innate capacity for change. In this episode, Kimberley and Xand focus on the heart, which has been branded the seat of emotion by generations of poets and songwriters.

They find out whether it’s medically possible to die from a broken heart, hear from a woman who lived for 16 months without a human heart, and Xand opens up about how Long Covid is affecting his heart.

Producer: Dan Hardoon

Researcher: Emily Finch

Executive Producer: Kate Holland

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0971rhk

Not clear how long it will be available - has already been there for well over a year.

Sound quality isn't that wonderful.

[PiggySue]

I know several people who have been profoundly broken hearted. When my grandmother was widowed decades ago, she was told by her GP that her angina had got worse because of a broken heart, that it was a real and recognised thing.....and that was back in the 80s.

Actually, I wanted to put a sad face emoji.

😢

[Gcart]

I was diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy when my son died suddenly last year . It sure is real and my markers when having a heart attack measured 1,000 . I was in hospital for 9 days as the heart literally dilates and can’t pump properly. In my case it recovered over time . As to thyroid levels I don’t know what happened beyond that time but don’t feel so well these days. I might say though that my attitude to life since his death as changed massively!

[shaws Administrator in reply to Gcart]

You have my condolences on the loss of your son. No words can console a parent on the loss of their child. It will take some time just to come to terms with it and that can take a while.

[Gcart in reply to shaws]

Thank you

[NWA6 in reply to Gcart]

I’m so sorry for your loss, I know you’ve spoken of this before but I can’t say it enough. I can’t imagine loosing a child 😞

My Nan had underactive, and I believe (in hindsight) under treated thyriod disease. Her son, my Uncle was killed in a car crash at the age of 32. I found her 6mths later, she’d died in her sleep. We always say it was a broken heart 😞

[Gcart in reply to NWA6]

Thank you

[DippyDame]

Interesting, thank you diogenes

My mother died suddenly 10 weeks after my father who had been ill for some time. They were devoted to one another and I always thought she died of a broken heart but that suggestion was pooh-hooh'd. I also suspect (now) she had undiagnosed hypo....that was 1975 so too late to join up the dots now!

[Ellie-Louise]

My father died, just 3 weeks after my mother died. He never recovered from his grief. Strangely enough the same thing happened with his own father but it was a few months after gran died.

[Purpledreamer]

Thankyou. I worked in a care home for the elderly and time and time again it was proved to me that emotions good and bad paid a huge role in their health. Many a time the carers would all remark and shed a tear for the spouse which died so soon after the other of a broken heart.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

A considerable number of children suffer severe emotional stress. Which made me wonder about the possibility of them suffering Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and longer term effects.

I found this abstract - which is fairly positive. However, the reference range for left ventricular ejection fraction is usually around 50 to 70%. So not being below 50% is back to the issues of maybe being within the range, but not necessarily where it needs to be for the individual.

Eur J Pediatr. 2020 Apr;179(4):619-625.

doi: 10.1007/s00431-019-03536-z. Epub 2019 Dec 21.

Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy in childhood

Yaşar Topal 1 , Hatice Topal 2 , Cem Doğan 3 , Sibel Bozabalı Tiryaki 4 , Murat Biteker 5

Affiliations

• PMID: 31865427

• DOI: 10.1007/s00431-019-03536-z

Abstract

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) is a significant cause of acute heart failure in adults. However, triggering factors, ECG and echocardiographic findings, and prognosis of TC have not been well studied in children. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the demographic characteristics, signs and symptoms, laboratory findings, and prognosis of children with TC. We analyzed demographic characteristics of childhood TC cases (aged < 18 years) treated at our university hospital from 2014 to 2019. The triggering factors of TC; outcomes of the disease; and laboratory, ECG, and echocardiographic findings at presentation were also examined. A total of 17 patients (mean age 9.71 ± 5.03 years, 52.9% female) were included in the study. Chest pain, palpitation, and dyspnea were the most common presenting symptoms. The most common triggering factor was emotional stress (47%) in our study population. Ten patients (58.8%) had a classical form of TC, with apical left ventricular wall motion abnormalities. None of the patients died, and 15 (88.2%) had complete recovery of left ventricular systolic function. Only two patients (11.8%) had a left ventricular ejection fraction < 50% at the end of follow-up.

Conclusion: This is the first retrospective data on childhood TC. The majority of patients with TC experienced an emotional stress as a trigger of the disease, and nearly 90% of the patients completely recovered.

What is Known?

• The occurrence of acute heart failure following an emotional or physical stress is called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC).

• Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is rarely reported in children

What is New?

• The present study is the first case series of children with TC.

• In contrast to the female predominance in adult population, TC was almost equally distributed between boys and girls in the pediatric age group.

Keywords: Children; Echocardiography; Outcome; Takotsubo cardiomyopathy; Triggers.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/318...

[juma34]

I think it's very important to note that Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is also associated with severe hypothyroidism as this study has found: Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy Associated with Severe Hypothyroidism in an Elderly Female ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... The proposed mechanism by which hypothyroidism can trigger the development of stress cardiomyopathy is this: "The most appealing hypothesis is a significant reduction in endothelial nitric oxide synthase, which could not only lead to arteriolar rarefaction but also predispose to vasospasm and abnormal vasodilatation. Coronary vasospasm has been previously described in patients with hypothyroidism.[18] Furthermore, thyroid hormones are known to down-regulate the expression of myocardial alpha 1-adrenergic receptors, and hormone deprivation could be related with increased expression of these,[19] predisposing to myocardial stunning in the setting of intense adrenergic stimulation."