Advances in cardiomyopathies quences and detection of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) which was used as a marker of early myocardial involvement. Results: Six (14%) patients had LGE, mainly involving apical, mid-basal inferoseptal and basal inferolateral segments. The presence of LGE was significantly higher in the group who had electrocardiographic abnormalities (29% vs. 4%, p <0.05). Of these 6 patients, 3 had regional wall motion abnormalities (2 with isolated apical dyskinesis and 1 with

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... ateral hypokinesis). Only one patient showed oedema on STIR sequences suggestive of active inflammatory activity. With CMR as the method of reference, the ECG had a sensitivity of 83% and a negative predictive value of 96% to detect CCM. Conclusion: ECG proves to be a useful, inexpensive and globally available tool for the screening of CCM in asymptomatic patients but with proven myocardial involvement in the CRM. Introduction: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) is characterized by a transient left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. The predictors of prognosis in TC are not yet fully established. Purpose: To identify predictors of outcome in patients (P) diagnosed with TC. Methods: Multicenter study involving 5 hospital centers that included all patients diagnosed with TC in the last 10 years. We assessed demographic data, precipitating factors and clinical presentation, trying to establish the predictors of in-hospital and post-discharge outcomes. Results: We included 67 P diagnosed with TC. During hospitalization (5.9±4.2 days) the following complications ocurred: heart failure (29.9%), cardiogenic shock (14.9%), atrial fibrillation (9%), complete atrioventricular block (4.5%), acute pulmonary edema (3%), stroke/TIA (3%), LV thrombus (1.5%) and death (1.5%). The following variables were identified as predictors of in-hospital complications: (i) Predictors of complete atrioventricular block were angina pectoris (p=0,047), syncope at presentation (p=0,043) and ST segment elevation on the admission EKG (p=0,015); (ii) ST segment depression on the admission EKG was identified as a predictor of acute pulmonary edema (p=0,011); (iii) LV dysfunction was an independent predictor of heart failure (p=0,011) and stroke/TIA (p=0,049); (iv) Male gender was an independent predictor of stroke/TIA (p=0,048) and death (p=0,002); (v) Other predictors of death were diabetes mellitus (p=0,024) and chronic renal failure (p=0,025). Over a follow-up of 32±28 months, the following events occurred: TC recurrence (4.5%), stroke/TIA (4.5%) and death (1.5%). The following variables were identified as predictors of complications during follow-up: (i) ST segment depression on admission EKG was a predictor of TC recurrence (p=0,016); (ii) Predictors of stroke/TIA were chronic renal failure (p=0,002) and absence of ST depression on admission EKG (p=0,016); (iii) Chronic renal failure was a predictor of death (p=0,009). Conclusion: TC has a high rate of complications in the acute phase, but a low rate of complications during follow-up. TC, mainly a disease of females, has a worse in-hospital prognosis in males. Male gender is a predictor of in-hospital stroke/TIA and death. Diabetes and chronic renal failure were also predictors of in-hospital death and chronic renal failure continues to be a predictor of death and also of stroke during follow-up. The admission EKG may have a prognostic role and ST segment depression was the only identified predictor of TC recurrence. Our results need confirmation in larger studies.