Postmortem diagnosis of Takotsubo syndrome on autoptic findings: is it reliable? A systematic review.

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is a cardiac syndrome characterized by transient left ventricular systolic dysfunction in the absence of significant obstructive coronary artery disease. At the autopsy, its diagnosis is often challenging, since it is generally thought that it relates to no characteristic macroscopic or microscopic findings. In order to verify this last statement, we performed a systematic review of the literature following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement (PRISMA) criteria. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first systematic review addressing this issue. We identified recurring but not pathognomonic (microscopic) features of TTS: contraction band necrosis and non-specific inflammatory changes (e.g., interstitial infiltrates of mononuclear lymphocytes and macrophages) typically in the absence of microscopic findings typical of acute myocardial infarction. In cases of TTS-related sudden death, careful evaluation of anamnesis, autopsy data and post-mortem genetic results (to exclude other causes) should be considered to overcome the complexity of these cases. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Simone Grassi, Oscar Campuzano, Francesca Cazzato, Mònica Coll, Alessandra Puggioni, Massimo Zedda, Vincenzo Arena, Anna Iglesias, Georgia Sarquella-Brugada, Vilma Pinchi, Ramon Brugada, Antonio Oliva. Postmortem diagnosis of Takotsubo syndrome on autoptic findings: is it reliable? A systematic review. Cardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology. 2023 Jul-Aug;65:107543

Mesh Tags

PMID: 37169210

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