A case–control study was performed amongst people who developed
sporadic and earthquake-related SCM (sp-ECM and eq-SCM).
The definition of SCM used was similar to the modified Mayo criteria.
All patients were admitted with chest pain with evolving ECG changes,
a troponin I rise N0.03 μg/l and a recognised transient echocardiographic
regional wall motion abnormality (apical ballooning pattern, mid-wall
variant or basal segment variant). Mean time to follow up echocardiogram
was 10 weeks. 93% (25/27) eq-SCM participants and 74% (23/
31) sp-SCM received cardiac catheterization during the index event.
We retrospectively identified thirty patients with eq-SCM who were
admitted to Christchurch Hospitalwithin oneweek after either the September
2010 or February 2011 earthquakes (Richter scale magnitude
≥6.3). Patients with sp-SCM were retrospectively identified from
Christchurch Hospital records from 2000–2012 with onset of SCM not
related to experience of an earthquake. The control cohortwas selected
from the Christchurch Healthy Volunteers for The Study of Heart
Disease (HV), who had been exposed to the same earthquake stressor,
attempting to match for age, ethnicity and gender. All 26 control
participants had normal echocardiography and ECG. Participants were
recruited and assessed in 12 months following the Canterbury Earthquakes.
The Southern Health and Disability Ethics Committee approved
this study