Can apical ballooning cardiomyopathy and anterior STEMI be differentiated based on β1 and β2-adrenergic receptors polymorphisms?

•β-Adrenoceptor polymorphisms are similar in the two groups.•Different cardiovascular risk factor profile among TTC and STEMI patients•On top of sympathetic pathway, they are fundamental contributors in STEMI.

AimCatecholamine excess along with an exaggerated sympathetic stimulation appears to play a major role in the pathophysiological mechanism of tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC), which mimics acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in the distribution of allelic variants of β1- and β2-adrenoceptors between TTC and anterior STEMI patients compared to normal subjects.Methods and resultsβ1- and/or β2-adrenoceptor polymorphisms in 97 patients with TTC (92 females, 96%; mean age 66.8 ± 11.6 years; range 35 to 87 years) were compared with 81 patients with anterior STEMI (77 females, 95%; mean age 72.5 ± 12.8 years; range 32 to 96 years) and 101 controls (95 females, 94%; mean age 62.3 ± 10.4 years; range 44 to 92 years). Differences in genotype frequencies were assessed using the Pearson χ2 test. β1-Adrenoceptor (Gly389Arg) and β2-adrenoceptor (Arg16Gly and Gln27Glu) genotype frequencies were significantly different among groups (p < 0.001, p = 0.024, p = 0.008, respectively). However, differences did not achieve statistical significance when TTC and anterior STEMI patients were compared by post-hoc analysis. The cardiovascular risk factor profile was worse in anterior STEMI patients, who more often had a history of systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease.ConclusionsIn a large TTC cohort compared with anterior STEMI patients, β-adrenoceptor polymorphisms were similar. However, the cardiovascular risk factor profile was different between the two groups. β-Adrenoceptor polymorphisms in TTC patients differed from normal subjects.