Stress-related cardiomyopathy

Stress-related cardiomyopathy is underdiagnosed in the white population. Recently, an increasing awareness of this syndrome was noted in the United States. Stress-related cardiomyopathy was found mostly in women after an immediate stress. The available literature has indicated excellent short-term prognosis and full recovery. We report the case of a 56-year-old white woman with acute pancreatitis, whose condition necessitated an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure. Shortly after she received counseling for this procedure, acute retrosternal chest pain and shortness of breath developed. She had ischemic abnormalities on electrocardiography and mild cardiac biomarkers elevation. Subsequent cardiac catheterization revealed normal coronary arteries but reduced ejection fraction (25%), and typical apical ballooning was noted. Ten days later, the left ventricular function completely normalized (ejection fraction of 55%).