PDF, English - main document Download (6MB) | Lizenz: Broken Heart Strings - Psychological Stress in Cardiac Patients after Chordae Tendineae Rupture by Cranz, Anna underlies the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0

Abstract

Chordae tendineae rupture is a potentially life-threatening cardiac event often resulting in acute mitral regurgitation with significant haemodynamic dysfunctions that require immediate medical intervention. However, to date, the psychological burden of cardiac patients with chordae tendineae rupture has been starkly neglected. Despite its potentially devastating effects on affected patients' physical health, the potential psychological effects have yet to be described. Moreover, while traumatic conditions within the spectrum of acute coronary syndrome and potentially traumatic cardiological treatment procedures (e.g., defibrillator implantation) have been at the centre of research efforts, neither the relationship of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, nor anxiety and chordae tendineae rupture has received any attention so far. Hence, although psycho-emotional comorbidities of heart disease have received much attention, little is known about patients’ psychological burden after acute severe mitral regurgitation due to chordae tendineae rupture. This pilot study aimed to assess affected cardiological patients’ psychological burden after acute severe mitral regurgitation due to chordae tendineae rupture in a mixed-method approach. For the monocentric, cross-sectional, non-interventional study presented in this thesis clinical and psychometric data was systematically collected in two cardiological samples (chordae tendineae rupture case study patients and myocardial infraction control study patients) after hospitalisation for a chordae tendineae rupture event or myocardial infraction.