
Broken hearts in underwriting
The broken-heart syndrome – A new diagnosis in risk assessment for life insurance
The broken-heart syndrome is new and rare diagnosis that risk assessors are now encountering with increasing frequency in the life insurance industry. The good news before Valentine’s Day: What looks like a heart attack, usually turns out to be harmless a few days later.
Medical research discovers new diseases regularly. One such example is takotsubo cardiomyopathy – also known as broken-heart syndrome. A typical case: Upon learning that her husband has died in an accident, a 60-year-old woman collapses with chest pains. All indicators point to a heart attack, which is also confirmed by the ECG and laboratory values. Even the echocardiography shows an initial severe impairment in the functioning of the left ventricle. And then the surprise: A few days later, the woman's pulse returns to normal, ruling out coronary heart disease.