Mechanisms ‘appealing but speculative’
In an editorial (J Am Coll Cardiol. 2023 May;81[20]:1992-5), Jorge Salamanca, MD, and Fernando Alfonso, MD, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Madrid, described this new study as “an important piece of research, providing a careful, systematic, and comprehensive set of sophisticated invasive hemodynamic data that shed new light on our understanding of this unique clinical entity.”
They said the researchers have provided “robust data on the acute hemodynamic behavior of the left ventricle in patients with Takotsubo syndrome that clearly advance the field but also raise new questions.”
But the editorialists cautioned that the hypotheses of the potential mechanisms linking a molecular basis for the metabolic dysregulation, resulting in increased potential energy coupled with a decreased kinetic energy, “are appealing but largely speculative.”
“Whether these hemodynamic findings could be the foundation and would support the use of novel and attractive drugs in Takotsubo syndrome, remains unsettled and can only be considered as hypothesis generating,” they wrote.
“Further studies are required to elucidate factors associated with a more severe hemodynamic derangement and to devise therapeutic strategies helping to rapidly restore an efficient left ventricular function in these challenging patients,” they concluded.
The study authors and the editorialists reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.