We would like to thank Professor Madias for his kind words related to our work, and we highlight several important points.

• 1.
  

  The relatively lower prevalence of diabetes in our takotsubo cohort is a characteristic of the specific epidemiology of this condition. Data from our center and from other investigators suggest that takotsubo patients seem to be less burdened by the usual risk factors associated with coronary disease.

  
  
• 2.
  

  Some of the patients in this cohort have agreed to further follow-up, and they will undergo repeat echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance in order to explore their recovery potential.

  
  
• 3.
  

  Indeed, these data allow us to benchmark the recovery parameters for further follow-up time points.

  
  
• 4.
  

  We could not find any correlation between any biomarker and either acute or 4-month imaging parameters. That being said, the C-reactive protein and brain natriuretic peptide were taken at different time points during the first 5 days after presentation. It is only Troponin that was taken at a fixed 12 hours post onset of symptoms because this was a clinical test. The C-reactive protein and brain natriuretic peptide were part of research and thus were taken as soon as the patient had been consented to the study, hence the variability.

  
  
• 5.
  

  We agree with Professor Madias that these data suggest that takotsubo is a panmyocardial disease rather than a localized affliction limited to the ballooning segments.