Cardiac magnetic resonance and cardiac magnetic field mapping in a patient with stress-induced cardiomyopathy (tako-tsubo).

We encountered a 65-year-old woman with typical electrocardiogram (ECG) changes and new-onset left ventricular dysfunction with apical ballooning that exhibited typical changes of tako-tsubo-like cardiomyopathy. We used cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and cardiac magnetic field mapping (CMFM) to detect changes in structural, mechanical, and electrophysiological myocardial properties during follow-up. CMR displayed an acute myocardial injury, but neither fibrosis nor necrosis. CMFM exhibited severely disturbed repolarization with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. These pathological findings persisted much longer than the abnormalities detected by CMR and the ECG.