BRAIN-HEART INTERACTION: CARDIAC COMPLICATIONS AFTER STROKE

Abstract

<em>Neurocardiology is an emerging and interesting discipline that addresses the brain and heart interactions, like effects of brain injury on heart functioning or effects of cardiac injury on the brain. This review paper encapsulates cardiac dysfunctions owing to strokes like ischemic stroke, brain hemorrhagic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The high mortality rate in heart or brain injuries is mostly due to neurological damage and cardiovascular complications, where the latter is the second leading cause of death after stroke. Experimental and clinical evidence showed a prominent relationship between heart dysfunction and brain damage.</em> <em>Thus, it is mandatory to determine whether a stroke triggers cardiac dysfunction or it is owing to some underlying causes of stroke. Stroke induced cardiac dysfunction can lead to life long cardiac problems, fatality, or mild recoverable damage like Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and neurogenic stress cardiomyopathy (NSC). Different underlying mechanisms in brain- heart interactions are discussed in this paper.</em>

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