Clinical Presentations and Outcomes of Takotsubo Syndrome in the Setting of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Evidence remains inconsistent regarding the incidence and prognosis of Takotsubo syndrome in the setting of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the clinical presentation and in-hospital mortality of these patients.

Methods: A systematic review of the electronic databases was conducted for studies involving patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage and concomitant findings of classical Takotsubo syndrome on transthoracic echocardiogram. A meta-analysis was conducted for the primary outcome of in-hospital mortality using the Mantel-Haenszel method for fixed effects and the DerSimonian and Laird method for random effects, with 95% confidence interval and a p-value <0.05 for statistical significance.

Results: Ten studies were retrieved with a total of 157 patients presenting with classical Takotsubo syndrome, representing 4.4% of the subarachnoid hemorrhage total population. The overall incidence of in-hospital mortality was 30% in the patients who developed Takotsubo syndrome. Meta-analysis illustrated a significant increase in the odds of in-hospital mortality for the Takotsubo syndrome patients by fixed effects model (odds ratio 2.6, 95% confidence interval 1.16-5.85, p=0.02, I=39%), with a trend towards increased risk of in-hospital mortality by random effects model (odds ratio 3.00, 95% confidence interval 0.90-9.77, p = 0.07).

Conclusions: The incidence of Takotsubo syndrome in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage seems to be high with a trend towards higher risk of in-hospital mortality in those patients. Thus, patients presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage might benefit from a comprehensive cardiac evaluation upon presentation for early detection and proper triage of this high-risk population.