Early recognition of apical ballooning syndrome by global longitudinal strain using speckle tracking imaging--the evil eye pattern, a case series.

We report 4 cases of patients diagnosed with stress-induced cardiomyopathy and the pattern of typical apical ballooning syndrome (ABS), who presented to our institution with chest pain, mildly elevated cardiac enzymes and ischemic electrocardiographic changes, found to have severe hypokinesis or akinesis of the mid to apical segments with dynamic basal segments on two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography along with a global longitudinal strain (GLS) pattern markedly different from the typical left anterior descending artery (LAD) myocardial infarction pattern. All of them had a similar GLS pattern on presentation, which was easy to recognize on the polar map the day of the event. Three of the patients underwent left heart catheterization and found to have nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). We discuss the usefulness of early recognition of ABS using GLS images.

Estrogen does not prevent endothelial dysfunction caused by cigarette smoking.

BACKGROUND: Estrogen favors endothelial function while acute tobacco use provokes dysfunction. Previous studies have not examined the effect of smoking one cigarette at different stages of the menstrual cycle. HYPOTHESIS: Favorable actions of estrogen on endothelial function are transitorily abolished by smoking one cigarette. METHODS: Brachial artery endothelium-dependent dilation was measured noninvasively before, 10 min, and 1 h after smoking in 17 healthy premenopausal women. Studies were done in the first 3 days (early stage) and repeated between Days 9 and 13 of the menstrual cycle (middle stage). Estradiol was measured after each study. RESULTS: At basal conditions, women in the middle stage of their cycles, when estradiol was 20 times higher than in the early stage, had significantly more endothelial-dependent brachial dilatation. No difference in the marked depression caused by cigarette smoking was found between the two stages. One h recuperation was complete in both phases. CONCLUSION: Cigarette smoking abolishes the protection of circulating estrogen on endothelial function.