USA: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) patients with migraine have lower odds of mortality and acute complications (heart failure exacerbation, cardiac arrest, acute kidney injury) versus TCM patients without migraine, a recent study has claimed. The study was published online in the journal Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine on March 24, 2022.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or "Broken Heart Syndrome" is an acute left ventricular dysfunction that is typically due to a neuro-cardiogenic mechanism. The role of migraines in hospitalized TCM patients has not been studied although many stressors can precipitate TCM. Considering this, Jobin Joseph Varghese, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA, and colleagues aimed to describe the in-hospital outcomes of TCM in patients with a concurrent diagnosis of migraines.

For this purpose, the researchers queried the National Inpatient Sample database for the International Classification of Diseases-ninth Revision to conduct a US-wide analysis of TCM hospitalizations from 2013 to 2017. Using the ICD-10 codes, they identified patients admitted with a principal diagnosis of TCM with a history of migraines.
The comparison was then made between TCM patients with migraines and TCM patients without migraines with regards to mortality and acute inpatient complications (intubation, cardiac arrest, heart failure exacerbation, acute kidney injury).
A total of 172,025 TCM patients were identified, of these, 3610 suffered from migraines.
Based on the study, the researchers found the following:
TCM patients with a diagnosis of migraine were associated with a lower odd for mortality (OR: 0.388) and acute complications (OR: 0.511) compared to those without migraines.
After adjusting for confounders, the adjusted odds ratio for mortality was 0.622, and acute complications were 0.563.
"There is limited research that describes a link between migraines and TCM, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study investigating the relationship between migraines and TCM," the authors write.
"Further studies are required to investigate this association of migraine and its protective neurohormonal effects on TCM patients," they concluded.
Reference:
Varghese JJ, Yacob O, Frances BS, Garcia-Garcia HM. Impact of migraine headaches on stress induced 'Takotsubo' cardiomyopathy. Cardiovasc Revasc Med. 2022 Mar 14:S1553-8389(22)00116-6. doi: 10.1016/j.carrev.2022.03.005. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35337755.