Dying of a broken heart sounds like the ending of a romantic story.
心碎而死听起来像是一个浪漫故事的结局。
But it actually happens.
但是这种情况真的会发生。
The "broken heart syndrome," usually affects people who have received very bad news.
“心碎综合征”通常会影响那些得到极坏消息的人们。
Recently however, researchers discovered that even joyful events can kill you.
然而最近研究人员发现，即使是快乐的事情也可能致死。
"Broken heart syndrome" is officially called Takotsubo syndrome, or TTS. It involves the sudden weakening of heart muscles. This weakening causes the left ventricle to expand abnormally at the bottom. If you remember from health class, the left ventricle is the chamber of the heart that pushes oxygen-rich blood through the body.
心碎综合征的正式名称是Takotsubo综合征（简称TTS）。它涉及到心脏肌肉的突然衰弱。这种衰弱会导致左心室底部异常扩张。如果你还记得健康课学到的知识，左心室是心脏输送富含氧气的血液的腔室。
The symptoms of Takotsubo syndrome are acute chest pain and shortness of breath. The syndrome can lead to heart attacks and death.
Takotsubo综合征的症状是急性胸痛和呼吸短促。该综合征会导致心脏病发作和死亡。
Even though Takotsubo syndrome is fairly rare, the scientific community has studied how unexpected emotional shocks can cause a heart attack. These shocks are usually unpleasant, such as the death of a spouse or a violent argument.
尽管Takotsubo综合征极其罕见，科学界已经研究了意外情感冲击如何导致心脏病发作。这些冲击通常是不愉快的，例如配偶去世或激烈冲突。
However, no one had ever investigated whether an extremely happy event could give the same result.
然而，从来没有人研究过一件极度快乐的事是否会产生相同的结果。
Until now.
直到现在才有了这项研究。
In 2011, a pair of researchers in Switzerland set up a global registry to track cases of the syndrome. Christian Templin and Jelena Ghadri are both with University Hospital Zurich.
2011年，瑞士的两位研究人员设立了一个全球数据库来跟踪这种综合征病例。克里斯琴·坦普林(Christian Templin)和耶莱娜·加德里(Jelena Ghadri)都就职于苏黎世大学医院。
Five years later, their registry involves a network of 25 hospitals spread across nine countries. They had collected data on 1,750 cases of the Takotsubo syndrome. This number of cases -- 1,750 -- is said to be "statistically significant" by scientific communities.
5年后，他们的数据库包含了分布在9个国家的25家医院这样一个网络。他们收集了1750例Takotsubo综合征的数据。1750例病例数被科学家称之为“具备统计学意义”。
For the study, Templin and Ghadri led a team of 16 researchers. The team found that emotional shocks caused 485 of those 1,750 cases. And within that group of 485, a total of 20 people could be said to have suffered from "happy heart syndrome."
在这项研究中，坦普林和加德里领导了一个由16名研究人员组成的小组。该小组发现，情感冲击导致了1750例病例中的485例。而在这485例病例中，总共有20人可以说是患上了“喜伤心综合征”。
In an interview, Ghardi said that the researchers have shown that the causes for TTS are more varied than previously thought. The disease can be caused by positive emotions, too.
加德里在接受采访时表示，研究人员已经证实，Takotsubo综合征的原因比以前认为的更加多样化。这种疾病也能通过积极的情绪引发。
The events that caused the 20 cases of "happy heart syndrome" include a birthday party, a wedding, a surprise farewell celebration, a favorite team winning a game, and the birth of a grandchild. However, none of these cases of "happy heart syndrome" caused death.
导致这20例“喜伤心综合征”的事件包括生日聚会、婚礼、惊喜告别仪式、喜欢的球队赢了以及喜添外孙。然而，这些“喜伤心综合征”病例未造成死亡。
Ghadri and her team published their findings in the European Heart Journal.
加德里和她的小组在《欧洲心脏杂志》上发表了她们的研究成果。
So what is the important take-away from this study?
那么，这项研究带来的重要成果是什么呢？
Emergency room doctors should be aware of the fact that patients with signs of heart attack could be suffering from TTS. And these TTS cases could be caused by either positive or negative experiences.
急诊室医生应该意识到具备心脏病发作迹象的患者可能是患上了Takotsubo综合征。而且这些Takotsubo综合征可能是正面或负面的经历所引起。
Another interesting take-away is that TTS affects mostly women.
另一项有趣的成果是，Takotsubo综合征主要影响女性。
For reasons the researchers do not yet understand, 95 percent of the patients in both the "broken heart" and "happy heart" groups are women. These women are mostly in their mid- to late-60s.
由于研究人员尚未知悉的原因，在心碎和喜伤心这两个群体中，95%的患者都是女性。这些女性年龄大多在60多岁。
Ghadri said she and her team still do not know why women are mostly affected by the Takotsubo syndrome.
加德里表示，她和她的小组尚不清楚为什么受Takotsubo综合征影响的多数是女性。
The fact that more women than men are affected by Takotsubo syndrome is even stranger when you consider that heart attacks are more common among men.
考虑到心脏病在男性中更为常见，女性比男性更多受到Takotsubo综合征影响就更为奇怪。
The researchers suspect that the hormone estrogen may play a part in how the disease operates. Women have much higher levels of estrogen than men. In men, testosterone is the dominant hormone.
研究人员怀疑雌激素可能在这种疾病的发病中发挥了作用。女性的雌激素水平高于男性。男性的主要激素是睾丸激素。
Happy and sad life events are, of course, very different. Further studies are also needed to figure out if both events share the same pathway in the central nervous system for causing Takotsubo syndrome.
快乐和悲伤的生活事件当然有着很大不同。还需要进一步研究才能找出这两种导致Takotsubo综合征的事件在中枢神经系统中是否存在着相同的路径。
Japanese researchers discovered the condition. They named it after a traditional Japanese octopus trap. An enlarged heart suffering from Takotsubo syndrome looks like an octopus trap.
日本研究人员发现了这种疾病。他们以日本传统的章鱼壶来命名这种疾病。患上Takotsubo综合征的心脏扩张后看起来就像是一个章鱼壶。
I'm Anna Matteo.
我是安娜·马特奥。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)