Comprehensive assessment of takotsubo cardiomyopathy by cardiac computed tomography.

Cardiac computed tomography (CT) now plays an important role in emergency settings because of its accessibility and fast acquisition time, which cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) cannot match. Although cardiac CT was originally conceived for the assessment of the coronary artery tree, it has evolved to embrace several non-coronary applications. These include myocardial assessment, resulting in myocardial characterization comparable with that of CMR and cardiac CT for late enhancement imaging. In this report, we describe a patient with takotsubo cardiomyopathy who underwent a comprehensive assessment using cardiac CT. This technique enabled to identify the condition of the coronary arteries and to evaluate the four-dimensional left ventricular function and myocardial late iodine enhancement immediately. The information obtained was similar to that provided by CMR; however, cardiac CT is more practical than CMR in emergency settings. Comprehensive assessment by cardiac CT can be beneficial for a noninvasive evaluation of patients with suspected takotsubo cardiomyopathy.