英语原文来自时代周刊 Oct 20, 2017
If you’ve ever lost a beloved pet, you know how much it can hurt. In fact, the pain could be enough to break your heart, suggests a new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 如果你失去过挚爱的宠物，你能体会到那样心有多痛。新英格兰医学期刊的一篇文章说，那种心痛，足够对心脏形成实质性伤害。
Last year, shortly after the death of her treasured Yorkshire terrier Meha, then 61-year-old Joanie Simpson woke up with symptoms consistent with a heart attack. 去年，在心爱的约克夏梗犬Meha去世后不久，61岁的Joanie Simpson 在醒来后发现了符合心脏病的症状。
She was airlifted from her local emergency room, where doctors diagnosed her with something a bit more unusual: takotsubo cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as broken-heart syndrome.她被空运到当地的急救中心，在那里医生诊断出了不寻常的病，心尖球形综合征，也被称为心碎综合征。
The condition can occur after a physical or emotional stress, like the death of a loved one, says Dr. Ilan Wittstein, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins and a broken-heart syndrome researcher. 约翰霍普金斯大学的心脏病学家Ilan Wittstein,博士说，在物理或者心理压力下，如伴侣的去世，可引发心碎综合征。
"The heart muscle suddenly weakens and doesn’t squeeze the way it should," he says. The heart temporarily stops pumping effectively, which can result in low blood pressure and even congestive heart failure. "A whole variety of emotional triggers can cause it," and it can occur in people who are otherwise healthy.“心脏的肌肉突然变弱，不能像如常般挤压”。心脏突然失去了有效泵送血液的能力，会造成低血压或充血性心脏衰竭。好多种情绪可以引发这样的症状，而且它能发生在健康人的身上。
While broken-heart syndrome looks a lot like a heart attack initially, there are some key physiological differences. 虽然心碎综合征在初期看起来和心脏病十分类似，它们之间还是有几个关键的生理性差异。
In the average heart attack, a clot in a major coronary artery blocks blood flow to the heart, permanently killing some of the muscle. 心脏病的发作是冠状动脉中的凝血堵住流向心脏的血液，导致某些肌肉永久性坏死。
With broken-heart syndrome, however, the major arteries remain clear, but the tiny vessels surrounding the heart are damaged, he says. It’s rarely fatal, and the problem can usually be fixed quickly if properly treated. 然而，在心碎综合征中，总动脉并没有堵塞，反而是主动脉周围的血管被破坏。它很少致命，如果能得到及时合适的救治，问题能被很快解决。
Broken-heart syndrome is surprisingly common. As many as 2% of people who are hospitalized with heart attack symptoms actually have takotsubo cardiomyopathy. (Given that 735,000 Americans have a heart attack each year, that’s not an insignificant number.) 心碎综合征其实很普遍。2%入院治疗的心脏病人是心碎综合征。人口基数足够大的时候，病人并不少。
The condition overwhelmingly affects women from ages 58-75, likely due to dropping levels of heart-protecting estrogen. 它易发于58-75岁的女人身上，据信可能和保护心脏的雌激素下降有关。
It also typically occurs after a stressful time. Simpson told the Washington Post that she was stressed about her son’s impending back surgery, her son-in-law’s recent unemployment, a drawn-out property sale and, most recently, losing her cherished nine-year-old furry companion. 它也易发于精神压抑的时期。例如上文中的Simpson女士，她为儿子将要做的手术紧张，为女婿的失业忧心，还有不动产买卖的不顺利，压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草就是陪伴她九年的毛茸茸的小东西的离世，差点要了亲命。
老年女性更容易心碎。对老太太们温和点。