Diastolic heart failure

Primary diastolic failure is typically seen in patients with hypertensive or valvular heart disease as well as in hypertrophic or restrictive cardiomyopathy but can also occur in a variety of clinical disorders, especially tachycardia and ischemia. Diastolic dysfunction has a particularly high prevalence in elderly patients and is generally associated, with low mortality but high morbidity. The pathophysiology of diastolic dysfunction includes delayed relaxation, impaired LV filling and/or increased stiffness. These conditions result typically in an upward displacement of the diastolic pressure-volume relationship with increased end-diastolic, left atrial and pulmo-capillary wedge pressure leading to symptoms of pulmonary congestion. Diagnosis of diastolic heart failure requires three conditions: (1) presence of signs or symptoms of heart failure; (2) presence of normal or slightly reduced LV ejection fraction (EF>50%) and (3) presence of increased diastolic filling pressure. Assessment of diastolic function can be performed with several non-invasive (2D- and Doppler-echocardiography, color Doppler M-mode, Doppler tissue imaging, MR-myocardial tagging, radionuclide ventriculography) and invasive techniques (micromanometry, angiography, conductance method). Doppler-echocardiography is the most useful tool to routinely measure diastolic function. Different techniques can be used alone or in combination to assess LV diastolic function, but most of them are dependent on heart rate, pre- and afterload. The transmitral flow pattern remains the starting point, since it is easy to acquire and rapidly categorizes patients into normal (E>A), delayed relaxation (E