A rare case of concomitant stress (takotsubo) cardiomyopathy and acute myocardial infarction.

Stress cardiomyopathy and myocardial infarction are generally regarded as mutually exclusive diagnoses. We report the case of a 54-year-old woman who presented with acute chest pain. Her echocardiogram and ventriculography were typical of stress cardiomyopathy, but she had one subocclusive coronary lesion, a highly significant rise in troponin and a subendocardial myocardial infarction scar documented on cardiac magnetic resonance. This is a rare case of concomitant myocardial infarction and stress cardiomyopathy, in which the acute coronary syndrome itself may have been the stressor, given the absence of other identifiable causes.