Left ventricular apical ballooning in mitral endocarditis

Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy is an enigmatic syndrome characterized by chest pain, transient left ventricular dysfunction and specific electrocardiographic changes induced by physical or emotional stress. We describe the first case of this syndrome associated with acute mitral regurgitation due to bacterial endocarditis: the reversible ventricular dysfunction might have been induced by altered catecholamine dynamics due to the pulmonary edema.