Forgetting heart break: a fascinating case of transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome associated with dissociative amnesia

Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome (TLVABS), also known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is characterized by transient left ventricular dysfunction, electrocardiographic changes, and release of myocardial enzymes that mimic acute myocardial infarction in patients without angiographic evidence of coronary artery disease. Most patients are post-menopausal women and an emotional or physiologic stressor frequently precedes the presentation. Psychogenic or dissociative amnesia is a memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde memory loss with inability to recall personal information said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years after a stressful event. Interestingly, the mechanism of both disorders has been linked to plasma elevation in catecholamines. Here we present the case of a 66-year-old female diagnosed with both TLVABS and dissociative amnesia following the sudden unexpected death of her sister. To our knowledge, this is surprisingly the first report of the co-occurrence of TLVABS and dissociative amnesia, two processes with a potential shared underlying etiology.