As a new New England Journal of Medicine case report shows, broken heart syndrome is a real medical condition. However, an echocardiogram revealed some classical signs of broken heart syndrome also called apical ballooning syndrome. For this patient, support included medications to take pressure off her heart, to give her broken heart a break. Stress-induced cardiomyopathy is yet another name for broken heart syndrome because it is stress causing the heart muscles to malfunction. The patient in the case report already had hypertension and hypothyroidism before the incident, which could have made her more susceptible to broken heart syndrome, but even completely healthy people can suffer broken heart syndrome.

Source: Forbes October 22, 2017 02:26 UTC