Prognostic Power of Mitral Annulus Indices of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function

L eft ventricular (LV) diastolic function (LVDF) is animportant determinant of exercise tolerance in patients with normal and depressed ejection fraction (EF). Several studies have also shown that noninvasive Doppler measure-ments of LV relaxation and filling pressures are predictors of outcome in several patients with cardiovascular (CV) disor-ders, including patients with HFrEF, HFpEF, atrial fibrillation, acute myocardial infarction (MI), mitral regurgitation, end-stage renal disease, and hypertension.1 Importantly, the change in LVDF can identify patients with normal EF who subsequently die or develop heart failure symptoms.2,3 Whereas most of the published literature includes reports from single-center studies, there are community-based reports that have shown similar results.4,5 The study in this issue by Kuznetsova et al. extends these observations by examining data from 793 subjects who were part of th